CHICAGO, Ill. - Erica McNew hit a two-run homer in the first inning, but UIC scored three unanswered runs to claim a 3-2 victory over Cleveland State in the series opener on Friday night.

The Vikings fell to 22-26 overall and 7-11 in the Horizon League, while UIC improved to 22-19 overall and 13-5 in the league.

The Flames moved into a first place tie in the league standings with Oakland, which lost to Wright State, 4-2, this afternoon. WSU is one game behind at 12-6.

CSU is tied for fifth place with Youngstown State and Valparaiso with the trio one game behind fourth place Green Bay who is 8-10 after a 9-8 loss to Green Bay today.

The top six teams make next week's league tournament, which will be hosted by the No. 1 seed. The regular season ends on Saturday with CSU playing a doubleheader at UIC, beginning at 1:00 pm EST.

In today's contest, Cynthia Woodard hit a two-out single in the first inning and McNew followed with her 12th home run of the season to give the Vikings the early lead.

It stayed that way until the fourth when the Flames ties the contest with a pair of unearned runs after two CSU errors. The game-winning run came in the fifth after Eleni Polites drew a one out walk, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Tiana Mack-Miller.

CSU had the tying run on second base in the seventh as Katelind Phillips singled and stole second base, but Elaine Heflin got a strikeout to end the game.

Susan Knight worked all six innings for the Vikings, giving up just five hits and striking out two.