CHICAGO, Ill. – UC Irvine picked up its first win of the season with a 3-1 victory (25-19, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23) over host Chicago State at the Windy City Classic Friday morning.  

The Anteaters (1-3) handed Chicago State its first loss of the season (2-1). Statistically Chicago State topped the boxscore with 61 kills to UCI's 46 and 73 digs to the Anteaters' 55. Both teams had five aces while the Cougars had a slight edge in blocks, 9-8.

Grad student Hunter Riedl recorded 13 kills for her third consecutive match to lead the Anteaters. She also totaled a career-high seven digs and three block assists in the win.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Ella Gardiner posted a career-best eight kills while adding two block assists
>Middle blocker Isabella Scarlett made her presence known in the final two sets with seven kills, hitting .385
>Outside hitter Marianna Bertolone tallied seven kills, nine digs and two block assists
>Setter Nicole Feliciano recorded 25 set assists, seven digs, an ace and a block assist
>Libero Campbell Jensen led all players with 19 digs and had a team-best two aces
>Middle blocker Ofure Iselen had a team-high four total blocks (1 solo, 3 assisted)
>Chicago State's Patrycja Lagida had a match-high 24 kills followed by Yanlis Feliz with 13 and Berenice Almeyda with 10 kills.

FIRST SET
>UC Irvine started with a quick 3-0 lead, helped by two Chicago State attack errors
>A dump by Nicole Feliciano and an ace by Lexi Gruszczynski increased the lead to 9-4
>A block by Hunter Riedl and Ofure Iselen made the score 15-9
>Four straight points, including two miscues by the Anteaters drew the Cougars to 15-13
>A Chicago State service error plus a block by Gardiner and Ellen Veargason increase the lead, 17-13
>A kill by Veargason was followed by two Cougar errors and an ace by Becca Sakoda to establish control 22-15
>The Anteaters would win 25-19 on a CSU attack error

SECOND SET
>An ace and two kills allowed CSU to open 6-3 advantage
>UCI trailed 6-10 and rallied on a pair of kills by Bertolone to tie the score at 10-10
>Teams would remain close until a pair of kills and an ace moved the Cougars to a 17-15 lead
>UCI rallied again on back-to-back kills by Gardiner and Feliciano, 17-17
>A kill and UCI attack error put the Cougars up 23-20 and following an attack error,  Chicago State would use a kill and an ace to close the set, 25-21

THIRD SET
>A block by Iselen and Spindt sparked UCI to a four point spurt which included a kill by Riedl and an ace by Campbell Jensen, 7-2
>The Cougars would go on a 4-0 run to tie the score at 10-10 and force a UCI timeout
>After the Cougars won the next point, UCI won four in a row, the last two an ace by Feliciano and a kill by Riedl to move in front 14-11
>CSU would creep within one twice (14-13, 16-15) before Riedl stopped the momentum each time, 17-15
>Another Riedl kill made it 19-16
>A kill and block narrowed UCI's margin to 23-22
>Following a UCI timeout, Isabella Scarlett put it away from the middle, 24-22
>A kill by both teams followed, UCI's coming from Spindt off the block to end the set, 25-23

FOURTH SET
>After a Bertolone kill ended a good rally, CSU scored the next three, 3-1
>A block by the Cougars gave CSU a 5-2 lead before UCI had a kill by Scarlett. three consecutive attack errors and an ace by Jensen to take a 7-5 lead
>Gardiner had a block with Spindt and a kill off the slide to increase UCI's lead 10-6
>A Cougar kill, an ace and a UCI attack error tied the set at 16-16
>The Anteaters would again establish an 18-16 lead only to watch CSU pound three consecutive kills for a 19-18 lead
>A kill by Bertolone and a joust won by Scarlett knotted the set at 22-22 all
>A kill by Scarlett put the Anteaters ahead 23-22 and again 24-23
>A kill by Riedl ended the match 25-23

NOTES
>Scarlett had five of her kills in the hard fought fourth set
>Lexi Gruszczynski, Becca Sakoda also had an ace for the Anteaters

UP NEXT
UCI will take on Jacksonville State tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. PT in UCI's final match of the tournament.