Sept. 23, 2017 - After a heavy concentrations of tournament the last couple weekends, the Concordia-Chicago volleyball team had a "break" of sorts today. They traveled to nearby Lake Forest College for a triangular. At the end of the day, the Cougars split their two matches to finish at 12-6 overall. 

The Cougars began play this afternoon with a contest against Robert Morris University of Springfield. This was a rematch of last week's meeting at the Illinois College tournament
Jennifer Livesay returned to the CUC lineup today, and she gave the Cougars a great start by serving 11 straight points. She aced the Eagles for the first point and added four more before the run was over. Julia Spitelli and Jaylynn Johnson knocked down the early kills, and the Cougars were off and running to an easy 25-13 victory in set one.

A big, early lead was such good strategy that the Cougars did it again in set two. After stopping the Eagles' opening serve, Elise Sombke served up the next eight points. Shannon Stamp and Austin Thompson demonstrated some well-placed kills, and the Cougars rolled to the 2-0 match lead with a 25-9 win.

Set three saw the Cougars score the first five points, and some of the younger players saw extended playing time as the Cougars closed out the sweep with a 25-16 win.
The Cougars' hitting was steady throughout the match with 26 kills against just six errors for a .308 attack percentage. Stamp and Livesay recorded six each while Thompson added five. The serving game stayed effective too with 12 aces, including five by Livesay and four by Sombke.

The second match of the day for CUC was a battle with host Lake Forest College. Many were predicting a tight contest, and they found out in set one that "tight" might have been an understatement. The two sides traded points early with neither team gaining more than a three-point edge. The Cougars trailed 24-21 before scoring three straight points and later led 27-26. However, an error on set point gave the ball back to LFC, and Lake Forest got a pair of kills to take set one 29-27.

Set two saw a late rally fall short. An early 8-0 run put the Cougars the lead. They stayed in control with Johnson's power slam to the corner gave them a 15-10 lead. However, the lead evaporated as the Foresters ran off six unanswered points. The Cougars made a late bid to get back in the hunt, but a serving error gave LFC its final point for a 25-21 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

Set three was played much the same way, but this time the Cougars repelled all of the Foresters' rallies to win 25-22. A 6-0 run towards the end fueled by Sombke's serving and a key kill by Johnson were critical.

The determination to force a decisive fifth set drove the Cougars in set four, and it looked a distinct possibility after a kill by Stamp gave CUC a 20-16 lead. However, the Foresters turned the tide dramatically with a 9-3 run, aided by a CUC serving error and a controversial ball-handling error call.
Livesay finished with a career-high 15 kills while Spitelli had eight kills and a .292 attack. However, the Cougars hit just .045 for the match.

"Our first match was a good chance for us to get our younger players some extended play and try some things," said head coach Troy Campbell. "In the second match, we had good determination, but there were too many critical errors, whether hitting or serving or something else. We just couldn't put it all together as much as we needed to for a second win today."

The Cougars (12-6) will return to conference play next weekend, beginning with a Friday match at Rockford University.