Sept. 23, 2016 - Back on the floor at Benedictine University's Dan & Ada Rice Center, the Concordia-Chicago volleyball team looked for a split on day one as they met another opponent from the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletics Conference, the Simpson College Storm. The Cougars were also looking for payback from an earlier loss to the Storm, but it was to no avail as Simpson won in three sets (25-23, 25-18, 25-17).

The first set was played very close to the vest as neither team could get a lead of one point. That changed when, leading 12-11, the Storm reeled off five straight points to take a six-point cushion. However, the Cougars erased that with an 8-2 run. Austin Thompson (Morris, IL/Morris Community) led the charge with a kill and two consecutive aces, the second of which tied the game 19-19. Simpson regained the lead, but CUC came back to tie at 23-23 as Raven Burns (Shorewood, IL/Minooka Community) served up an ace. But the Storm regrouped during a timeout and scored the final two points to take the lead in the match.

In set two, the Cougars fell behind 4-1 but came back behind the serving of Thompson. She served up six consecutive points, helped out by the hitting of Arendia Ruiter (Kane'ohe, HI/Moanalua), to put CUC on top by an 11-7 margin. However, the Storm bounced back with two runs, one of six points to reclaim the lead at 17-14 and another of five points to end the set after Thompson's kill had pulled the Cougars to within 20-18.

Sensing a sweep within reach, Simpson bolted to an 8-2 lead in set three. However, Concordia rallied behind Jaylynn Johnson (Denver, CO/Vista Peak) who halted a Simpson run with a kill and then served up three more points including an ace. The Cougars were within 10-9 but were unable to get over the hump. Simpson scored eight of the next nine points and soon finished out the match.

 Ruiter led the attack with eight kills, but no other CUC players recorded more than four. The bright spot of the match fro CUC was the serving game with nine aces, four by Thompson and two by Courtney Luciano (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield South).

The Cougars (2-11) will return to Benedictine on Saturday for day two of the NACC-IIAC Challenge. Concordia's matches are at noon against the University of Dubuque and 4 p.m. against Central College.