GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - Junior Brittany Groth (Oak Creek, Wis.) recorded the third-most digs in program history and Green Bay twice led by a set Saturday evening at the Kress Events Center, but visiting UIC rallied for a 3-2 win (18-25, 25-15, 19-25, 25-32, 15-10) in Horizon League volleyball action.

Green Bay was looking for a perfect weekend after a sweep against Valparaiso Friday night, and the Phoenix looked primed to do just that in a dominant first set win. The Phoenix scored four straight points to break a 5-5 tie early and never trailed in taking the early lead. Sophomore Leah Van Zeeland (Kaukauna, Wis.) had six of her career high 19 kills in the set as Green Bay hit .417.

The Phoenix jumped ahead 6-2 early in the second, but it was a complete reversal from there as the Flames scored 13 of the next 16 points to move ahead 15-9. Green Bay had eight attack errors and hit just .054.

"We weren't able to carry over our patience from last night to today," said head coach Debbie Kirch. "I felt like we got too comfortable with leads we had within sets, with getting ahead by a set. Every team that we play in the Horizon League is going to fight hard and we have to take victories instead of waiting for them to come to us."

After the intermission, Green Bay looked like the team it had been in set one. The Phoenix again jumped out early with the first four points and never trailed while taking a 2-1 sets lead. Senior Abbey Gitter (Hortonville, Wis.), junior Carmen Leitermann (Schofield, Wis.) and sophomore Lyndsay Zabkowicz (Oak Creek, Wis.) each tallied five kills as the Phoenix had 18 kills and again hit over .400 as a team.

The fourth set was tight throughout, and the Phoenix looked primed to win when it went ahead 19-16 on a kill from senior Carlie Willison (Greenfield, Wis.). However, UIC scored eight of the next 10 points and closed out the set on a Sara Sternard kill. Sternard had 12 kills and zero errors for the Flames.

The decisive fifth set saw UIC turn a 4-3 deficit into an 11-6 edge. Green Bay was able to score three-straight points to close the gap to just two (11-9), but the Flames were able to close out the set from there. The Phoenix, who had four errors in the fifth set, fell to just 1-4 in five-set matches.

"We want our players to be aggressive and play with intelligent aggression," said Kirch. "Unfortunately, last night we played with intelligent aggression and tonight at times, especially at crucial times, we did not."

Groth's dig total bested her career high of 36, which she had posted twice, and was better than all but two performances in school history. Krista Olearnick has the school record with 43 against Wright State in 2002. With 83 digs in three conference matches, Groth is averaging 6.92 digs per set and leads the league by over a dig per set.

Aside from Groth and Van Zeeland, sophomore Leah Poel (Jenison, Mich.) also had a career high in the match with 61 assists. Poel added four kills while directing the Phoenix offense to a hitting percentage of .260.

Gitter had 16 kills, Leitermann had 15 kills and Zabkowicz added 10 as the Phoenix put four players in double figures in kills for the second time in the past three matches.

Green Bay returns to the road this week, playing at Chicago State on Tuesday for a non-conference match before traveling Chicago on Friday to play against HL foe Loyola.