Sept. 1, 2015 - The Concordia-Chicago volleyball team ran from one extreme to the other on Tuesday evening in Naperville, competing in their first two matches of the 2015 season. After a rough first match in which the Cougars lost in three sets (14-25, 15-25, 14-25) to host North Central College, they rebounded to win the nightcap over North Park University in three sets (25-19, 25-20, 25-15). 

The Cougars were unable to get much of anything going in the opening match, recording more attack errors than kills and playing at a generally inconsistent level. "Give North Central credit, they're a very good team, but I thought that we came out unaggressive and a little bit overwhelmed," said CUC head coach Troy Campbell. "Fortunately, we took note of what we did wrong and were able to clean it up a lot in the second match."

The stats in the North Park match bore out Campbell's claim as the Cougars got things moving in the right direction. One of CUC's biggest advantages in this match came in the form of 18 serving aces, led by Jenna Helsing's (Chesterfield, MI/L'Anse Creuse North) four and three each from Olivia Friedrichs (San Diego, CA/Clairemont) and Hannah Johnson (Chesapeake, VA/Hickory). "We were able to put pressure on North Park right away with our serving, and that really helped set up some other things for us," said Campbell.

CUC's attack fell into step as Campbell moved Austin Thompson (Morris, IL/Morris Community) to outside hitter, and the sophomore responded with 11 kills and an excellent .429 attack percentage.The offense had a better rhythm which was set up by an improved passing game and, as a result, the Cougars were able to build up big leads in the first two sets. 'We could have been better in closing out those first two sets," observed Campbell. "We would get to 23 or 24 points before they would make a run and narrow the gap. However, I thought that we did better in the third set as our conditioning efforts paid off, and we were able to close out the match in decisive fashion."

The Cougars will return home to host the Concordia Invitational Volleyball Tournament on Saturday. Play will begin with CUC battling Concordia Ann Arbor at 10 a.m. and will end with CUC tangling with Concordia Wisconsin at 2 p.m. The two visiting teams will compete in the middle match at noon.