September 12, 2017- Concordia-Chicago came into tonight's matchup against Illinois Institute of Technology looking to extend their winning streak to five and continue building on their best start in program history. In a hostile environment, the Cougars came away with a huge road victory winning the match 3-1 (25-18, 25-22, 15-25, 25-22). With this win, the Cougars are off to their best 10-game start in program history at 8-2.    

In the first set, the Cougars picked off where they left off from the weekend jumping out to a blistering 11-2 start. The Scarlet Hawks passing was not helping them as their bad passing led to two monster Shannon Stamp kills to set the tone early for CUC. Illinois Tech cut the lead to six with some serving errors from CUC, but the Cougars quickly shut the door on a huge block from Stamp and Austin Thompson to push their lead to 13-6. The Scarlet Hawks got back into the match, cutting the lead back to five off some huge blocks on the outside. Concordia-Chicago halted any sort of momentum IIT thought they had behind some great serving with Nicoletta Crowley hitting her spots on the court and a final Jaylynn Johnson kill to give the Cougars a 25-18 win in the first set.  

Early in the second set, the Cougars got off to another great start behind three straight blocks, two by Stamp and one by Johnson. Illinois Tech came back strong on back-to-back aces to tie the match up at 8-8. Concordia-Chicago then scored three of the next four points on two kills and a block by Julia Spitelli to force an Illinois Tech timeout. It was a good timeout by the Scarlet Hawks as they got back to within one to get the home crowd back into the match. With the set tied at 21, the Cougars got two big points in a row with a kill from Spitelli and a Thompson and Stamp block to give CUC a late lead. The Cougars ended the set with a Stamp tip-kill to give them a 2-0 lead in the match.  

Unlike the first two sets, IIT was the ones that jumped out to the quick start in the third set. Two aces and service errors gave the Scarlet Hawks a 9-4 lead and forced a CUC timeout. IIT continued to outplay the Cougars after the timeout in every facet of the game to win 25-15 and force a fourth set. 

Concordia-Chicago quickly forgot about the third set to come out strong in the fourth set. A Stamp ace and hitting errors from Illinois Tech gave the Cougars an early 5-0 lead. The CUC lead evaporated within minutes as the Scarlet Hawks capitalized on multiple Cougar errors from all over the floor to take the lead at 8-7. Through the middle of the set, both teams kept trading points as Johnson was heating up from the floor with two huge kills to tie the score at 15. The senior Thompson came up big for the Cougars late in the set with a huge block and a tip-kill to give CUC a 20-18 lead and force an Illinois Tech timeout. CUC didn't let that stop them as it was the Johnson show with two huge kills to give the Cougars a four-point lead before Spitelli closed out the match to give Concordia-Chicago the win, three sets to one. 

Johnson was the star of the night with a team high 16 kills and only five errors for a hitting percentage of .306. Stamp followed her with 11 kills and only four errors to go along with her two service aces.  

Coach Campbell remarked on what this win means for his team in their first true road test of the year: "I think that we showed our youth a little bit tonight in the way of not handling the pressure of the crowd and the situation very well, but we were able to persevere with some really great focus in that fourth set when Shannon came out laser focused to attack from the service line to give us the lead. Jaylynn also came up big for us in that last set to really put us over the top to give us the win."

Coach Campbell also talked about how it feels to start the year with the program's best 10-game start in its history: "It means a lot - the hard work we've done over the last three years coming from our recruiting, our workouts in the off-season, and our girls believing in the system for us to have this type of success. With such a young team, it bodes well for the future as long as we continue to progress and be willing to work, we can be a very good team for a long time."

The Cougars (8-2) return to action September 13 from Geiseman Gymnasium in River Forest, IL when they open up NACC play against Benedictine University at 7:00 p.m. Fans are encouraged to wear white!