Sept. 13, 2015 - The first of consecutive weekend tournaments sent the Concordia-Chicago volleyball team to Earlham, IN this weekend. A busy slate of four matches greeted the Cougars for Sept. 12-13. They came home with a 2-2 record for the weekend and 3-5 overall after two wins on Saturday and two hard-fought five-set losses on Sunday.

Sophomore Austin Thompson (Morris, IL/Morris Community) was the story for the weekend as she pounded opposing defenses for 72 kills in the four matches. She also recorded 13 serving aces and provided sturday defense over the weekend.

The weekend started with a four-set win (25-12, 22-25, 25-20, 25-19) over Wilmington College from Ohio. Thompson pounded down 15 kills for CUC, but the Cougars also received strong contributions from two of their newer players. Emily Marcus (Chesterton, IN/H.S.) chipped in with eight kills and six aces, and Nicoletta Crowley (Romeoville, IL/H.S.) added 31 assists.

Match two on Saturday night pitted CUC against host Earlham College, and the Cougars prevailed in another four-set affair (25-21, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18). Thompson riddled the hosts' defense with 20 kills (.386) and five aces while Marcus added 12 kills. The Cougars' blocking game was in fine form too as Anna Kellar (Collinsville, IL/Metro-East Lutheran) recorded three solo and two block assists, and Raven Burns (Shorewood, IL/Minooka H.S.) added three solos.

Thompson dished out a career-high 26 kills in the Sunday match against the University of Pikeville, but it wasn't enough to avoid a five-set loss to the school from Kentucky (25-23, 20-25. 21-25, 25-21, 18-20)  Crowley handed out 50 assists, and Olivia Friedrichs (San Diego, CA/Clairemont) added 20 digs as part of a solid weekend in which she was the team's primary libero. But the Cougars were guilty of too many hitting errors which led to their downfall in this match.

The final match of the weekend came against another Ohio school, Berea College. CUC dropped the first two sets 21-25, 15-25 before rallying to take the next two by 25-17 and 28-26 scores. The deciding fifth set was played equally close, but Berea eventually pulled out a 15-13 victory Mary Arredia (Franklin Park, IL/West Leyden) led the attack this time with 15 kills and a sparkling .438 attack while Marcus and Thompson each recorded 11 kills.

"Overall, I though we did  really well this weekend," said CUC head coach Troy Campbell. "Our players fought hard for every point, and it's good to see that we're making progress, "Our loss to Pikeville was an emotional one, and I though that it took us until midway into the Berea match before we recovered from that. We're still looking for the big plays at the end of a match, but our conditioning and back-row play were good all weekend, and our serving was great."

The Cougars will have the week to practice before another two-day tournament next weekend. That will take place in Jacksonville, IL with Illinois College serving as the host.