CHICAGO, Ill. - Lindenwood women's volleyball (2-1, 0-0 OVC) dropped their first match of the season after UIC (3-0, 0-0 MVC) defeated them in three sets. The Lions went 2-1 over the weekend to open up the season. The set scores were: 15-25, 21-25, 25-27.

During their third match in two days, the Lions offense was held to just a .165 hitting percentage including a .091 in set one and a .038 in set two. Addy McAleer led the team in kills with 10 marking her third straight match with double digit kills. She also recorded two service aces in the loss.

Setter Allie Otten had 18 assists for the Lions while also picking up seven digs on defense. Jessie Seidel earned another 15 digs as the libero for the Lions and also chipped in seven assists.

Nyah Wilson and Ashley Geluck had nine kills each with Geluck posting a team best .438 hitting percentage (min. seven attacks). As a team, the Lions had 36 kills to UIC's 42 while UIC hit .283 in three sets.

UIC was led by Ayat Amin with 11 kills and a .562 hitting percentage on 16 attacks. Zahria Woodard led all players with eight total blocks including seven block assists. Woodard would also add six kills.

"UIC is a solid and experienced team with a great offense and a couple of high level setters," said head coach Will Condon. "They jumped on us early and it took us about a set and a half to recover. I think from that point we played much better and made the adjustments we needed to in order to compete at their level. In the third set they made a couple of plays that were the difference."

The first set was taken over by UIC early on as they held a 12-3 advantage midway through the set. Lindenwood was able to cut the deficit to six after a kill be Geluck to change the score to 10-16, but it was not enough for the Lions. The Flames hit .367 in the opening set with 14 kills.

UIC grabbed a 24-15 lead in the second set to put Lindenwood in a hole late. The Lions would fight back in the second and ended the match scoring six of the last seven points including two block assists from Rebecca Janke and Anna Karemer, but UIC took the second set 25-21.

UIC and Lindenwood would go back and forth in the final set resulting in 15 ties between the two. Lindenwood was down by three points multiple times in the set but rallied back to force overtime in the third. After a service error by UIC tied the match at 25-25, the Flames ended the match with two kills by Amin and Cleo Lorenzo.

"Overall, it was a successful weekend for us," said Condon. "We learned a lot about what we can do and some areas to improve on next week. I think we learned we are deeper than we were last year and have more weapons. As a staff, we need to figure out how to utilize them better."

Lindenwood will return to the court next weekend starting on Friday, Sept. 1 when they host three teams at the Lindenwood Invitational. The Lions will play Austin Peay and Louisiana Monroe on Friday and play Indiana State on Saturday. All Lindenwood matches will be streamed on ESPN+.