CHICAGO ? Senior Ashley Baker recorded a double-double, with 19 kills and 18 digs, for the Western Illinois volleyball team in its five-game victory over DePaul, 3-2 (20-30, 30-28, 30-26, 25-30, 15-13).

For the fourth-straight match the Westerwinds were forced to play five games. Western jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in game five and held off the Blue Devils push to have an 8-4 lead when the teams switched sides. DePaul then fought to within one point (9-10) before the Westerwinds pulled back out to a three-point lead. The Blue Devils fought to keep themselves in the match, but could never pull closer than one point the rest of the way through.

“The good thing about going five is that we are staying competitive and winning games,” said head coach Kym McKay. “The bad thing is that we are inconsistent on our side of the net or waste a game. Tonight game one was not proper use of our time.”

Game one started out slow for the Westerwinds as they found themselves down by five points early (9-4). The Blue Devils used strong hitting and blocking to push their lead to as many as 13 points before Western went on a five-point run to close the gap to eight. DePaul hit .529 (21k-3e-34ta) to Western's .000 (8k-8e-35ta) and out-blocked the Westerwinds 3-2 in the first game.

The lead was too much to overcome in the game, but the Westerwinds kept pushing and forced three game points before falling 30-20.

Western then took that momentum into the second game and jumped out to a 7-3 lead with Baker serving. The Blue Devils pulled back into the game when they tied it at 18. The two teams then battled for the lead until the Westerwinds pushed back out to a three-point lead. Western and DePaul fought for points the rest of the game, but the three-point lead was enough to earn the victory.

Sophomores Emily Harrison and Erin Frick helped the Westerwinds increase their hitting percentage from .000 in the first game to .314 (20k-4e-51ta) in game two. Frick tallied six kills, while Harrison added four in the second game for Western.

Western earned an early 3-0 lead with Baker, the 2006 Mid-Continent Conference co-Player of the Year, at the service line. The Westerwinds kept the lead until the Blue Devils tied the game at 11. DePaul kept the match close with several tie points, but never able got more than one point ahead of the Westerwinds because of service errors, recording four during the game.

The deciding rally came as the game was tied at 26. Western was then pushed to victory recording four unanswered points. The Westerwinds were strong at the net, recording three blocks in the third game and not allowing the Blue Devils to garner any.

Game four became a battle with no team taking more than a two-point lead until DePaul pushed out to a three-point lead at 15-12. The back and forth battle then resumed, but Western could not pull closer than two points and went down by as many as seven. The Westerwinds then forced the Blue Devils to go for five game points before earning the critical victory and send the match to five games.

Service errors played a key role in the victory for Western, as the Blue Devils recorded 15 to the Westerwinds five. Blocking also played a role, as Western out-blocked DePaul 13 to seven.

“DePaul is a very young team and that helped us tonight,” McKay said. “I give them a lot of credit because they stayed in the match and kept the pressure on us. We need to keep focusing on how to control our consistency and how to sustain it through the momentum in the match.”

Western will now start five-straight Summit League matches when they head to Kansas City, Mo., to take on UMKC, Saturday, September 22 at 7 p.m.

Notes: This was the second of three matches for Western in the Chicago area...the Westerwinds defeated Loyola 3-2 September 11 and will come back to the area to face UIC November 11...Western has never played four-straight five-game matches...The Westerwinds played three in 1987 (September 22-26)...Baker's double-double (K-D) was the fourth-straight for the Fort Wayne, Ind., native and her fourth of the season.