Sept. 1, 2017 - The Cougars opened up the season against Concordia-Texas in Mequon, Wisconsin this evening in the annual Concordia Invitational Volleyball tournament. Concordia-Chicago shook off some early nerves after the first set to come back and dominate set two. The Tornados took set three, but the young Cougar team grew up as the match went along, taking sets four and five to earn themselves the 3-2 (21-25, 25-19, 15-25, 25-17, 15-12) victory over Concordia-Texas.

In the first set, the Cougars got off to a sluggish start, which led to some mistakes that cost them points. Head coach Troy Campbell called an early timeout to get his team back on track and ease the nerves after a seven-point deficit. After the timeout, the momentum swung the Cougars' way with three quick points to cut the lead to four, but Concordia-Texas put that to rest with errors from CUC to take a 17-10 lead. Concordia-Chicago rallied behind Nicoletta Crowley's serving, cutting the Tornado lead to 17-14. The Cougars rallied late behind a couple Austin Thompson kills, but Concordia-Texas managed to hang on to win set one 25-21. 

In set two, the Cougars got off to a 5-0 start, led by Crowley's back-to-back aces and a monstrous kill by Shannon Stamp. However, the Tornados quickly responded with five of the next six points to get back into the match. The Cougars recovered quickly and reeled off seven of the next eight points with two aces from freshman Elise Sombke and another two kills from Thompson to give CUC a 13-6 lead. Concordia-Texas made a rally in the middle of the match with a few kills to cut the Cougars lead to 17-13, but a beautiful tip from Jaylynn Johnson halted the Tornado rally.  CUC was able to hang on a win set two 25-19.

Set three went back and forth early with neither team taking full control of the set. Concordia-Texas jumped out to a three-point lead, but the Cougars quickly responded with a kill and a block by Johnson to cut the lead to 9-8. The Tornados rallied off four straight points to extend their lead to five and force a Cougar timeout.  CUTX didn't let the timeout get away from their game in set three as they continued to be all over the floor and blocking many attempted Cougar kills to take a 18-9 lead late in set three. The Tornados ended set three quickly, winning by the final score of 25-15 to take a 2-1 match lead.

Much like in the third set, both teams were neck-and-neck early before the Cougars took a two point lead at 8-6 behind a Johnson kill. The Tornados rallied with three points of their own to take a 9-8 lead. The match continued to go back and forth with CUC netting the lead this time behind two kills by Julia Spitelli to give the Cougars a 12-11 lead. Concordia-Chicago earned their largest lead of the set on an ace by Spitelli to give the Cougars a 16-13 lead. CUTX rallied for two quick points, but the Cougars regained the momentum with four straight points on kills by Johnson and Shelby Spitz to give CUC a 20-15 lead late in set four. Stamp then took over completely with two huge blocks and the kill to give the Cougars set four by the final score of 25-17 and force a deciding fifth set.

The Cougars got out early with a 3-0 lead in set five behind another huge kill by Stamp. Concordia-Texas capitalized on errors from the Cougars to tie up the game at 4. After a Spitelli kill, the Tornados scored three straight points to give them a 7-6 lead midway through the fifth set. Stamp continued to have a strong match as she rattled off another late kill to give the Cougars a 9-8 lead. The Tornados got back into the match on a huge block and a Cougars' error to give them a 11-10 lead and force a CUC timeout. Concordia-Chicago responded well out of the timeout with two straight points, led by a huge kill by Spitelli to force a CUTX timeout. CUC came out firing, capitalizing on Tornado errors that led to a match-winning kill by Thompson to give the Cougars the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.    

Thompson led the Cougars with 14 kills, followed by Stamp with 11 kills. Crowley had a game high 40 assists while Sombke led with 25 digs..  

After the match, Coach Campbell had this to say about his resilient team: "To start off our season with such a hard-fought victory is huge for us. We're young, so being able to overcome adversity and being able to prove that to ourselves will allow us to have that resiliency in matches where we won't see possible defeat, that we can still win in that adversity and continue our fight through these types of matches."

The Cougars (1-0) return to action tomorrow afternoon in Mequon, WI at 1:00 against Concordia Ann Arbor and 3:00 against Concordia Wisconsin.