Sept. 23, 2015 - The Concordia-Chicago Cougars played one of their finest matches of the season tonight. A night topped off with 16 serving aces propelled the Cougars to a 3-0 (25-13, 25-16, 25-19) victory over the Rockford Regents in the Cougars' NACC opener.

The Cougars have been a team all year that come out of the gates with a lot of confidence, and tonight was no different in set one. The Cougars came out and grabbed a 3-0 lead immediately. Rockford would fight back in the set to eventually tie it at 9-9. The Cougars would then go on a streak of 9 straight points capped off with two aces from Hannah Johnson (Chesapeake, VA/Hickory). As was the theme for the night, the Cougars finished off the set with an ace, this time from Jackie Bartnicki (Chicago, IL/Guerin Prep) that gave the Cougars the 1-0 match lead.

Set two was battled closely, but the big momentum shift took place with the score at 13-11 when Austin Thompson (Morris, IL/Morris Community) hammered home a kill that got the Cougar fans going and forced Rockford to take a timeout quickly thereafter. The set was finished off by a Emily Marcus (Chesterton, IN/H.S.) kill. She would lead the Cougar attack with 11 kills on the evening.

Set three would be much of the same as the second, The two teams would battle tough into the middle points, but after CUC head coach Troy Campbell took a timeout after Rockford tied it up at 13-13, the Cougars would take control. The Cougars went on a five-point run with kills from Raven Burns (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) and three aces from Marcus that sealed the match. The final point was well fit for the match, the Cougars 16^th ace of the evening. It came from Nicoletta Crowley (Romeoville, IL/H.S.) on a perfectly placed serve that Rockford could not handle.

Coach Campbell praised his team's effort on the evening. "I thought it was a fantastic team win, I thought the girls kept their energy up through all three games." He also would praise the gameplay of Mary Arredia (Franklin Park, IN/West Leyden) who had seven kills out of 12 attempts in the match. Also, Sarah Smith (St. Ignace, MI/LaSalle) saw her first major action, and Campbell said of her effort, "I thought she did great, she played with some nervousness at first but would let that go. She looked relaxed, got kills and big blocks for us."

Arredia also commented after the win, "It feels great, it's a big confidence booster to have this first conference win under our belt."

The Cougars (6-7, 1-0 NACC) will be back on the court on Saturday in Platteville, Wisconsin where they will play a dual match first against North Central at 1 p.m., and then the host school Wisconsin Platteville at 3 p.m.