Sept. 13, 2017- Women's volleyball took the court against Benedictine University Wednesday night to start their Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference schedule. CUC came into the game at 8-2 and riding a five game win streak. Benedictine came into the match struggling to find any sort of rhythm on the floor with a record of 1-8. The Cougars gave the student section, which was a complete white out, something to cheer for and had the gym electric all night. Behind the rowdy crowd, the Cougars handled the Eagles with ease in three sets (25-15, 25-10, 25-23).
Early in set one, Benedictine started out springing to a 6-3 lead, but the Cougars shook it off, took the lead and made it 13-7. They rode the momentum of a monstrous kill coming from Jaylynn Johnson, off a BenU player. The Cougars run forced the Eagles to call a timeout to regather themselves. After the timeout, the Cougars continued to extend their lead in large part of a two more missile-like strikes from Johnson. CUC stopped any groove the Eagles would start to get into and swiftly took set one with a score of 25-15. Julia Spitelli and Austin Thompson also contributed to the Cougar offensive attack with a pair of kills each.
Opening up set two, CUC jumped out to a 6-1 lead that forced yet another Benedictine timeout. During their strong start to the second set, Cougars freshman Shannon Stamp gathered a couple big kills and put the Eagles' hitters in tough situations due to her being a threat to block any kill. The duo of Stamp and Johnson continued to dominate the second set collecting block after block and kill after kill. Not showing any signs of stopping, the Cougars forced the Eagles to call a timeout while holding onto a comfortable 16-4 lead. Catapulted by more kills by Thompson, and a scrappy defensive effort the ladies coasted to a 25-10 win in set two making it 2-0 in favor of the Cougars.
Moving along to set three, CUC looked to close out the Eagles. Freshman libero Elise Sombke, led off the set with an ace, and a lot of hustle in the back row to keep the Cougars in the driver's seat. Another quick lead, forced the Eagles to start off set three with a timeout with the score standing at 6-1. Trying to force a fourth set the Eagles did not fold, and clawed back to make the score 8-7. A kill by Shelby Spitz, a hitting error by the Eagles, and a smart tip kill by Nicoletta Crowley made it seem like the Cougars were holding off the Eagles' final push, but Benedictine kept on coming and took the lead at 14-13 to force a Cougars timeout. Coming off the timeout, an Eagles error and a huge dig by Alexa Lomantini, tied the game up at 15-15. From then on both teams battled, neither grasping control. A Stamp ace forced the Eagles to call their second and final timeout with the score 21-19 in favor of CUC. The Cougars held off a late scare and sprinted to the finish line ending the game at 25-23 and taking the match three sets to zero.
Thompson led the Cougars with 8 kills, followed by Johnson's 6 kills to lead them on the offensive end. Other key contributors were Courtney Luciano and Sombke who each had 9 digs and Crowley with 23 assists.
The Cougars move to 9-2 (1-0 NACC) and pick up their first conference win of the 2017 season. The Cougars look to keep adding to their win streak this weekend when they face off against Illinois College and Olivet College on Friday night at 3:30pm and 5:30pm.
