Oct. 27, 2015 - The final week of the 2015 volleyball season got underway this evening as the Concordia-Chicago Cougars went to the limit and lost a five-set match to the Scarlet Hawks of the Illinois Institute of Technology (15-25, 26-24, 23-25, 25-22, 12-15).

A cold start put the Cougars back on their heels in set one. Trailing 5-4, the Scarlet Hawks got the sideout and then served eight straight points  The Cougars drew no closer than seven points the rest of the set asthey fell behind 1-0.

Set two saw the Cougars fight back and gain some offensive rhythm. IIT grabbed the early lead at 6-1, but CUC used kills from Austin Thompson (Morris, IL/Morris Community) and Mary Arredia (Franklin Park, IL/West Leyden) to climb back into the hunt. However, the Cougars found themselves in danger of going down 0-2 in the set until some late fireworks occurred. Raven Burns (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) recorded a key kills, and Hannah Johnson (Chesapeake, VA/Hickory) closed out a 5-0 run with consecutive serving aces for a 26-24 victory and a 1-1 tie in the match.

Concordia-Chicago attempted a repeat act in set three after falling beind 24-18. An ace by Burns, two kills from Thompson and a kill from Nicoletta Crowley (Romeoville, IL/H.S.) accounted for four points in a second 5-0 run, but the Scarlet Hawks drew the line there and scored the nexxt point to capture their second set.

Needing a win in set four to stay alive, Arredia came up big for the Cougars in a closely-played set. Leading by a slim margin of 23-22, the senior made a solo block on an IIT attack and then slammed down the final kill of the set..

A frantic set five saw the Cougars trail 10-5 before they rallied one last time. Thompson's kill capped a 7-2 run that knotted the game up at 12-12. However, the Scarlet Hawks rolled off the final three points to make for a 15-12 set and a 3-2 match victory.

Thompson led CUC (9-17) with 18 kills and a .283 attack. Arredia added 12 kills while Burns notched season-highs of seven kills and four aces. IIT (13-15) was led by Jelena Vujicic with 14 kills (.250) and Irena Grauzinis with 12 kills.

The Cougars will wrap up the 2015 season with four matches at the Augustana Invitational on Friday and Saturday.