CHICAGO, Ill. - The first Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference match on the campus of Illinois Institute of Technology took place on Tuesday night, as women's volleyball played host to one of the NACC's top teams. Aurora University, who fell in the league championship match last season and qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament, started strong and held off some Scarlet Hawk pressure late as Tech dropped the match 3-0. The Hawks fell to 1-7 overall and 0-1 in NACC play, while AU moved to 4-4 and 1-0.

Set Scores

• AU 3, Tech 0: (11-25, 21-25, 15-25)

How it Happened

• Aurora showed its successful pedigree early, taking a 10-2 lead in the first set and never looking back. The Scarlet Hawks managed to start matching points early thanks to a few Alyssa Miner kills, but the Spartans were too far ahead.
• While AU started the second set in a similar fashion, the Scarlet Hawks showed a ton of fight. After trailing 7-1, Tech worked to trim the lead down to 9-7. Then, AU built its advantage back up to seven before the Hawks once again cut the lead to one at 20-19. The Spartans managed to seize control of the set late, and despite a late kill from Tech's Karen Marrufo-Zubaran, the visiors took a 2-0 match lead.
• In set three, Marrufo-Zubaran began to leave a mark on the match. She recorded three of Tech's first four points on kills to give the Scarlet Hawks a lead for the first time in the evening at 4-3. The Sparants, however, settled in from that point forward en route to a 25-15 win.

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• Marrufo-Zubaran emerged late as one of the top players on the court, tallying seven kills and nine digs overall.
• Curcio led the Scarlet Hawks with 14 digs.
• Taylor Burton tallies six kills on a .462 hit percentage

Stats to Know

• The attack was on of the deciding factors in this match, as AU hit .217% while holding Tech below .000%. 
• Aurora's net presence was also key, as the Spartans recorded seven total blocks compared to two for Tech.
• The Scarlet Hawks were close to AU in digs (60 for AU, 50 for Tech) and aces (three for AU, one for Tech).

Up Next

• The Scarlet Hawks will have a full week off from competition. Illinois Tech will play next at Kalamazoo on Wednesday, September 19 at 7:00 p.m. central time.