Sept. 6, 2014 - The Concordia-Chicago Cougars' volleyball team bounced back from a difficult opening weekend to take three of four matches this weekend at the Northland College Invitational in Ashland, Wisconsin. The wins were the first three under first-year head coach Troy Campbell and evened the Cougars' record at 3-3.

All four of CUC's matches went the minimum three sets. Concordia-Chicago began play on Friday, Sept. 5 with a 25-20, 25-16, 25-23 win over Finlandia University in the afternoon match. The Cougars came back that evening to take The Blue Angels of Mount Mary College by scores of 25-22, 25-12, 25-12.

The morning match on Sept. 6 saw the Cougars fall to undefeated Maranatha Baptist University by scores of 23-25, 18-25, 23-25. But the team regrouped to defeat host Northland College 25-8, 25-13, 25-9 before boarding the bus for the long ride back to Chicago.

The first day saw the Cougars start sluggishly, according to Campbell. However, a key positional move started the ball rolling for CUC. "We put Katie Hannon (Chicago, IL/Queen of Peace) in at libero, and her play really energized the team. We never really looked back after that."

Also central to the Cougars' play was the tandem of outside hitter Kaylyn Anderson (East Chicago, IN/Whiting) and middle blocker Austin Thompson (Morris, IL/Morris Community). "We are going to see a lot of our offense run through those two, especially as they keep working with our setter Jackie Bartnicki (Chicago, IL/Guerin Prep)," said Campbell.

The Cougars will return to action on Wednesday, Sept. 10 when they play at North Park University in Chicago.