September 3, 2016 - After a tough opening day for the Concordia University Chicago volleyball team, they would take to the court again Saturday morning, hoping to get into the win column on the first weekend of the season. The Cougars would split the two matches on day two. Falling in the first match to Simpson College 3-1 (12-25, 17-25, 25-21, 18-25). CUC battled back immediately following against MacMurray College and put together their best match of the weekend, winning in straight sets (25-16, 25-21, 25-20).

In the MacMurray match CUC and MacMurray battled back and forth early in the first set. With the score tied 9-9 CUC made a run to make it 13-9 getting kills from Sarah Smith (St. Ignace, MI/LaSalle) and Mackenzie Kelty (Louisville, KY/Ballard) and a service ace by Courtney Luciano (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield South). Jaylynn Johnson (Denver, CO/Visa Peak) got in on the action stretching the lead to eight with a big kill, and CUC would not let up from there. They scored the final four points of the set to take set one 25-16.

In set two, CUC rode the momentum to an early 8-3 lead getting kills from Smith and Calista Chaltron (Richmond, MI/Cardinal Mooney Catholic). MacMurray battled back though to tie the set up at 19 late. Head Coach Troy Campbell used a timeout to regroup his young team. They saw some of the potential come to light when Johnson hammered home four of the final six points to take set two.

Set three saw the two schools neck and neck early. CUC made their run with the score tied 6-6. Kills by Raven Burns (Shoreweood, IL/Minooka) and Johnson helped CUC go on a 10-1 run to take control of set three. MacMurray took advantage of multiple Cougar errors to battle back to tie the match up at 18. Smith stopped the MacMurray run with a big kill, and propelled CUC to take control again. Smith finished off the match with the final kill to give CUC its first victory of the season.

Smith led the way with 12 kills in the match and Johnson followed with 10. Arendia Ruiter (Kane'ohe, HI/Moanalua) let the team with 32 assists for the match. Luciano, Chaltron, and Alyssa Serewicz (St. Charles, IL/St. Charles North) led the way on the defensive end with double-digit digs.

In the first match against Simpson College, CUC fell behind early and had trouble fighting back in the first two sets. They extended the match by winning the third set 25-11, but fell in the fourth set 25-19.

Following the match Johnson was named to the All-Tournament team for the weekend. The Cougars (1-3) will rest up after the weekend and get ready for a dual match on Tuesday. They will head to the city to take on North Park and North Central starting at 5:00 p.m..