MACOMB, Ill. - Fighting Leatherneck volleyball opened up the home portion of its season with a 3-0 win over Chicago State on Tuesday evening (Sept. 10). Western improves to 3-5 on the season while the Cougars fall to 0-8.

"It was a good win against a tough team. Chicago State is very scrappy, their defense has always blown me away," head coach April Hall said. "I think we did a good job of persevering through that and our hitters did a great job knowing that we were going to have second-chance opportunities and trying to take advantage of that as much as they could. I think we did a great job; there's always room for improvement and I'm looking forward to seeing them [Chicago State] again next week."

The victory was the first 3-0 win for the Leathernecks in 2013. The Purple & Gold never trailed in the opening set on their way to a 25-16 victory. 

Set two saw Western take down the Cougars, 25-20, while the Leathernecks cruised to victory in set three, 25-19, to take the match. 

Samantha Fournier led the Leathernecks with 16 kills and a .464 hitting percentage. Ann Miller also posted double-digit kills, recording 10, while Jordan Jackson and Mallory Gibson notched eight and seven, respectively. 

"We really got our middles involved a lot more than we have in the past," added Hall. "That was so important to us, it was part of our game plan to get Jordan [Jackson] and Mallory [Gibson] going. They did a wonderful job, they both hit over .500 so I'm so pleased with them."

Sarah Fetter continued to set up her teammates, posting 46 assists in the three-set match. The senior now has 2,411 career assists in her Leatherneck career. 

Bailey Kaloupek recorded nine of the teams 30 digs while Miller added seven for Western. As a team Western posted a season high .402 attack percentage

"It's going to be another tough weekend for us. We've got some great teams coming this weekend and we're just going to work hard in practice tomorrow," said Hall. "Nothing's going to change for us, we're 100% of the time always going to give it our best. [We'll work] on the little kinks that we saw tonight and this past weekend in order to be successful this coming weekend."

Western will be back on the road this weekend as the team travels to Iowa City, Iowa for the Hawkeye Challenge. The Leathernecks will square off against UIC, Ball State, Iowa and Drake with two matches on Friday (Sept. 13) and two on Saturday.