The Valpo volleyball team twice rallied from a one-set deficit Tuesday night at the ARC against visiting UIC, but was unable to complete the comeback in the final frame, falling 3-2 (25-22, 20-25, 25-11, 21-25, 15-8) to the visiting Flames. Late in the first set, junior Emma Hickey (Granger, Ind./Penn) reached the 2,000-dig milestone for her collegiate career.
 
How It Happened

• After the teams traded set wins in the first four frames, the early portion of the fifth set was a struggle for control, as Valpo and UIC were tied at each point from 1-1 through 5-5.
• The Flames strung together four straight points to take an 8-5 lead at the changeover and media timeout. Junior Sam Warren (Kentland, Ind./South Newton) slowed the UIC momentum with a kill, but Valpo couldn't string together consecutive points as the Flames successfully sided out on each of the Beacons' last six serves of the match.
• Valpo was still within two points at 10-8 before UIC closed the set and the match on a 5-0 run.
• The Flames took control of the first set with an 8-3 stretch into the media timeout, turning a 7-7 tie into a 15-10 advantage.
• UIC's lead grew to six points at 21-15, but a 5-1 Beacon run — including two kills and a block by freshman Ava Helming (Johnston, Iowa/Johnston) — closed the gap to 22-20. The two squads sided out the rest of the way, however, as the Flames earned the win in the opener.
• A 6-2 run early in set two, which featured a kill, a block and an ace from freshman Lilly Merk (Terre Haute, Ind./Terre Haute South Vigo), gave Valpo a 9-5 lead. The Beacons led by as many as five in the frame, and while the Flames cut the lead to one at 19-18, freshman Jessica Pickett (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) and Merk recorded back-to-back kills to keep UIC at bay. A Merk kill eventually ended the set in Valpo's favor, evening the match at one set apiece.
• UIC's attack was the story of set three, as the Flames hit at a .483 clip. An early 8-1 run gave UIC the lead for good as it went on to a 2-1 lead in the match.
• The Beacon defense turned it around in set four, limiting UIC to .051 hitting. Valpo got off to an 11-5 start to the set as it led from the outset.
• The Flames did make it interesting, cutting the Beacon edge to one point four separate times, the latest coming at 20-19. Senior Elise Swistek (LaPorte, Ind./New Prairie) came up with a kill to side out, and a UIC error gave Valpo breathing room. On Valpo's second chance to take the set, Helming posted a kill to force the decisive fifth frame.

 
Inside the Match

• With a dig late in the first set, Hickey hit the 2,000-dig mark for her collegiate career. She did so in her 96^th collegiate match, tying former Illinois State standout Courtney Pence as the quickest to the milestone in Missouri Valley Conference history.
• Hickey hit the mark faster than any of Valpo's other four liberos who have posted at least 2,000 digs, as both Rylee Cookerly and Taylor Root took 101 matches to get there.
• Hickey finished the night with a match-high 24 digs, her 17^th effort of 20 or more digs this year. With 659 digs this season, the junior is eight digs away from cracking the program's top-10 chart for a single season spanning all eras.
• The loss locked Valpo's path for the MVC Tournament, as the Beacons finished the regular season in a tie for sixth place in the Valley standings by virtue of Murray State's loss to Belmont earlier in the day. Valpo has now finished in the top half of the MVC standings in each of its eight seasons in the conference.
• Valpo went five sets with each of the top three teams in the MVC standings in one of two regular season matchups.
• UIC ended the night with a 69-52 advantage in kills and hit at a .242 clip to the Beacons' .190 clip. No Valpo player finished in double digits in kills, with Helming and Warren pacing the squad with nine kills apiece — the latter doing it on .318 hitting.
• Merk did not commit an attack error, finishing with eight kills on .444 hitting.
• Swistek tallied seven kills on Tuesday, leaving her eight kills away from 1,000 for her collegiate career.
• Sophomore Mara Thomas (Bogart, Ga./Athens Academy) handed out 29 assists and posted 17 digs, her 12^th double-double of the season.
• Pickett tied for match-high honors with six blocks, pushing her season total to 126 — seventh-most by a Valpo player in the 25-point era and leaving her just four away from the top-10 spanning all eras.
• Warren got it done on both sides of the net Tuesday, posting five blocks as well to match her career best.

 
Next Up
Valpo (17-13, 9-9 MVC) opens MVC Tournament play on Saturday from Cedar Falls, Iowa. The sixth-seeded Beacons will take on seventh-seeded Murray State at 6 p.m. that evening. In their lone regular season matchup, Valpo came away with a 3-1 win in Murray, Ky.