Oct. 21, 2016 - The Cougar volleyball team's final road challenge of the season in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play came this evening in Milwaukee. The Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors were the opponent, and they looked to celebrate their Senior Night with a victory. The Warriors did prevail, but not before the Cougars roared back from an 0-2 deficit
and extended the Warriors to the limit in the fourth set before finally falling short.

It appeared as if the night would be a quick one as WLC took the first two sets by scores of 25-13 and 25-14. The hitting stats told most of the story as the Warriors hit .458 and .478 while the Cougars were plagued by hitting errors in both sets. 

The Cougars came to life in set three, The lead bounced back and forth until kills by Raven Burns and Arendia Ruiter gave CUC a 17-15 lead. The Warriors pulled one point back, but a couple of attack errors and a kill by Jaylynn Johnson extended the lead out to 22-16. The Warriors scored four of the next five points to pull back within 23-20, but a kill by Austin Thompson and a WLC attack error ended the set at 25-20.

Set four began with the Warriors bolting to a 7-1 lead, but the Cougars were far from finished. A block by Thompson and Nikki Crowley began to turn around the team's fortunes. Thompson added a couple of kills and a service ace over the next few minutes as the Cougars rallied to within 11-10. Soon after, two kills by Ruiter and one by Johnson gave Concordia-Chicago its first lead of the set at 15-14. 

The Cougars later upped the lead to 18-16, but the Warriors answered with a 5-0 run to take a three-point lead. The hosts could not yet shake the Cougars, as CUC fought off match point a couple of times on kills by Ruiter and Burns. The kill by Burns tied the set 25-25, but an attack error and a service ace finally brought the match to the end with WLC's 27-25 win giving them the 3-1 final.

Ruiter led CUC in kills for the second consecutive match with 12 kills (.296) while Thompson added 11. Crowley handed out 32 assists while Alyssa Serewicz and Hannah Johnson each recorded 11 digs.

Concordia-Chicago (4-21, 3-7 NACC) will return home to face the Edgewood College Eagles on Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m.