Oct. 18, 2016 - The Concordia University Chicago volleyball team hosted Benedictine University Tuesday night.  The Cougars were coming off a great win against Marian University this past Saturday and, with a win tonight, would inch Concordia-Chicago closer to a top six spot in the conference. Unfortunately, the Cougars ran into an Eagles' team that passed well and were able to convert on a high percentage of kills. The Eagles took the match three sets to one (15-25, 11-25, 25-12, 17-25).  

In the first set, the Cougars held off an early Eagles' run with a huge block by Sarah Smith and kills from Arendia Ruiter and Jaylynn Johnson. In the middle of the match, it was even at 12-12 as both teams kept getting points back and forth until Benedictine toughened out seven straight points against the Cougars. That run included four aces to bring the score to 19-12. The deficit was too much for CUC to overcome as the Eagles won set one 25-15.

In set two, the Cougars came out hot behind Smith as she laid the hammer on two quick kills to give CUC an early 4-1 lead. That lead quickly diminished as Benedictine came soaring back, scoring nine of the next 11 points to a lead of 10-6 that led to a CUC timeout. The timeout did not work out for the Cougars as errors and Eagles' kills forced another CUC timeout when Benedictine jumped out to a 19-9 lead.  The Eagles came out firing on all cylinders as they didn't let the Cougars get back into the game, taking set two by the score of 25-11.

In set three, Concordia-Chicago and Benedictine were trading points back and forth. No one wanted to take over the set until the Cougars rallied off four straight points behind junior Austin Thompson with some great tipped balls that were able to find the floor to give the Cougars an early 9-6 lead.  CUC was able to stretch out that lead in the middle of the match as Ruiter rallied off two straight kills to put the Cougar lead at 14-9 and force a Benedictine timeout.  The Cougars didn't lose any momentum after the timeout as they took the next five of six points from the Eagles behind kills from Johnson, and a serving ace by Ruiter to extend the lead to 19-10. The Cougars dominated set three as they went on to win 25-12 to force a fourth set.

The Cougars looked to ride the momentum going into set four, but the Eagles had an answer as they jumped out to a quick 6-3 lead.  Benedictine came out strong like they did in the first two sets as they rallied to take a 14-7 lead and force a CUC timeout.  After the timeout, CUC was able to rally off five of the next seven points behind the hitting of Ruiter and the setting of Nikki Crowley.  However, Benedictine was able to halt the Cougar rally to quickly regain an eight-point lead late in the match to force the last Cougar timeout. Unfortunately the Cougars could not mount a comeback like they did over the weekend as the Eagles won set four 25-17 and the match 3-1.

The Cougars (4-20, 3-6 NACC) will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Friday Oct. 22 to take on Wisconsin Lutheran College at 7:00pm in a important NACC matchup as the Cougars look to fight their way back into the top six picture in the conference.