Oct. 23, 2015 - Concordia-Chicago volleyball had the opportunity to honor three seniors this evening, but the mood of the night was dampened after a  hard-fought five-set loss to Wisconsin Lutheran College 3-2 (25-20, 20-25, 15-25, 25-20, 11-15).

Tonight's match was full of emotion from the opening serve. The Cougars battled hard to really earn the first-set victory. CUC used some great serving in the set, especially from one of the Cougar seniors, Jackie Bartnicki (Chicago, IL/Guerin Prep), who would serve seven points in the set. The Cougars got the attack going from all angles, especially with one of the NACC's top hitters Austin Thompson (Morris, IL/Morris Community) finishing with four kills in the set.

The second set saw the visiting Warriors taking advantage of multiple attack errors from the Cougar hitters. CUC would take their only lead in the set at 5-4 after an impressive kill from Nicoletta Crowley (Romeoville, IL/H.S.) spiking the ball into the WLC court for the point. The teams traded points back and forth through the early going before WLC made their first run. They would serve two aces coupled along with a Cougar attack error that led to a CUC timeout with WLC leading 15-10. The Cougars pushed back after the timeout to get the score back to 15-14. The Warriors then recovered their rhythm and, with the help of two more attack errors, closed out the second set by a score of 25-20.

Set three was the most lopsided of the match as Concordia-Chicago would finish the set with more attack errors than kills. The teams played the start of the set closely but, with WLC leading at 10-9, the Warriors took advantage of a Cougar error and then hammered home a few kills, forcing a CUC timeout with the score 13-9. The Cougars clawed back to get within 17-15 with kills from Mary Arredia (Franklin Park, IL/West Leyden), Raven Burns (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) and Crowley forcing a WLC timeout. However, the Warriors ran away with the set after four Cougar errors and took set three 25-15.

Heading into set four, Wisconsin Lutheran carried the momentum from the end of set three to a very large lead at 16-6, forcing CUC head coach Troy Campbell to take his second timeout. Suddenly, the comeback was ignited. With Nicole Inwards (Waltham, MN/Blooming Prairie) serving, the Cougars rattled off four straight points to get within 16-10. After a WLC point, CUC came back to get kills from Sarah Smith (St. Ignace, MI/LaSalle), Crowley, and Thompson, and a service ace from Olivia Friedrichs (San Diego, CA/Clairemont) to get within 17-14. The teams traded points to 20-17 when Coach Campbell called upon one of his seniors to serve, Mary Umstattd (Phoenix, AZ/Westview) then served eight straight points for the Cougars with the assistance of fellow senior Arredia who had three kills, and Burns who placed a perfect cross-court kill to help lead CUC to the 25-20 set-four victory.

Set five began with the Warriors taking away all of the momentum that the Cougars were looking to carry over. WLC grabbed the early lead at 6-1. They would then extend the lead out to 9-2 before the Cougars looked for the comeback magic one more time. Umstattd served and got the Cougars to within 9-5. Bartnicki then served after the WLC point to get the Cougars within 10-8. Wisconsin Lutheran would take a timeout and then score five of the next eight points, with the match finishing on a Cougar service error.

Following the match, the Cougars were able to honor their three senior players and families for their time and dedication to the volleyball program.  CUC will head to Wisconsin to take on Edgewood College and close out NACC play Saturday afternoon, with that match starting at 12:00 p.m.