PALATINE, IL-  The #1 ranked Harper College women's volleyball team traveled to Joliet on Tuesday and defeated the Wolves in Joliet's brand new athletic center in 4 sets.

As has been the case in recent matches, sets have been close right from the start and Tuesday's match was no different.  After a 4-1 lead, the Hawks found themselves tied at 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, and 7-7 before six straight Karolina Sas (/Fremd) serves went for points to put Harper ahead 13-7.  The Hawks extended their lead to 18-10 before the Wolves mounted their own comeback.  JJC rallied to scores of 19-14 and 20-16 and then tied the set at 24-24.  Harper was unable to bounce back and lost set one 24-26.  The Hawks had 16 unforced errors in the set-- 11 hitting and 5 service-- that put them in a hole they could not get out of.  On the positive, Breanna Cullen (/Oregon) had 7 kills and Sarah Udoni (/Palatine) had 3.  Emily Huprich (/Elgin) had 13 assists and 4 digs.  Sas lead the team in serving at 8-8 and added 9 digs to her stat sheet.

Set two was close again before Harper was able to create a two-point lead at 11-9 and then extended it to 4 points at 17-13.  The Hawks started to click and pulled away to 23-15 on the way to a 25-16 second set victory.  Ellie Burzlaff (/Harvest Christian), Marielle Lugo (/Hoffman Estates), and Udoni co-led the Hawks with 3 kills each while Huprich totaled another 13 assists.  Ariana Chelini (/Crystal Lake South) led Harper with 6 digs and added an ace, while Breanna Cullen (/Oregon) had 2 aces and 5 digs of her own.

Harper started off the third set with a 4-1 and 7-2 lead but once again, the Wolves would comeback to bring the lead to 1 at 9-8.  That would be as close as Joliet would get, however, and the Hawks pulled ahead 17-11 and 19-12 before a 25-18 win.  Burzlaff once again led the Hawks with 6 kills but Udoni was right behind her with another 4.  Huprich had 13 assists for the third set in a row.  Everyone seemed to get involved on the defensive side as Chelini (8), Cullen (5), and Burzlaff (4) all contributed digs.  The service trio of Cullen, Chelini, and Sas was a combined 19-20 with 2 aces.

The fourth set saw 3 early ties at 1, 2, and 3 points apiece before the Hawks pulled away.  After leads of 9-4, 12-7, and 16-9, Breanna Cullen (/Oregon) had 7 straight service points to go ahead 23-11 and led Harper to a fourth set 25-11 win, ending the match. Burzlaff led the Hawks again with 5 kills and a block while Huprich had 9 assists and Chelini had 6 digs.

Harper reached at least 50 kills in a match for the fourth time this season and totaled 48 assists, all from Emily Huprich (/Elgin).  For the fifth time this season, the Hawks finished with double-digit service aces with 13 against Joliet.  Ariana Chelini (/Crystal Lake South) led the way with 24 of the Hawks' 87 total digs.  Emily Huprich (/Elgin) (11 digs, 48 assists) and Breanna Cullen (/Oregon) (12 kills, 16 digs) each finished with a double-double.

The Hawks move to 22-4 overall and 7-0 in the N4C.  Harper will host the Triton Trojans on Thursday at 6pm at the Robert Morris University gym in Arlington Heights.