Ashland, Wis.- After a hard-fought split in the home opener on Tuesday night, the Concordia University Chicago Volleyball team headed to the northern tip of Wisconsin on Lake Superior for four matches at Northland College. The first two matches came today on Chapple Family Court. The Cougars used a high hitting percentage along with a strong all-around effort to take both matches. The first came over Finlandia (29-27, 25-22, 25-15). The second match CUC quieted the home crowd quickly defeating Northland 3-0 (25-15, 25-11, 26-24) to improve their record to 5-2 on the season.
 
In match one against Finlandia, it was a tough opening set as both teams went back and forth throughout. As the pressure of the set grew, CUC rose to the challenge. Shannon Stamp sent home multiple kills on flares to the outside to tie the match at 23. It was then senior Austin Thompson who would seal the set for the Cougars with the final three kills to take the set 29-27.
 
Set two brought much of the same intensity and energy between the two teams. Finlandia looked to be pulling away late in the set with a 21-17 lead that forced head coach Troy Campbell to take a timeout. His team responded though out of the huddle by ripping off a 7-1 run to take the set. Julia Spitelli started the run with back-to-back kills. It was then the strong jump serve of Elise Sombke that inched CUC closer before Stamp and Nicoletta Crowley finished the set off with a tandem block on the right side.
 
Riding the momentum from set two, CUC continued to put their foot on the gas in set three. Using a 7-0 run with Sombke serving allowed the Cougars to open up a 19-10 lead and they never looked back. Final kills by Jaylynn Johnson and Spitelli put the finishing touches on win number four on the season.
 
CUC hit an impressive .308 for the match (38 kills, 10 errors) while limiting Finlandia to just a .074 percentage. With the offensive attack clicking CUC saw multiple players finish with near same kill numbers. Additionally, the Cougars finished with 13 aces for the match.
 
Match two saw CUC rise to the challenge of the road contest from the opening serve. The teams traded points early, but CUC got things rolling once again with a 6-0 run to open up some breathing room at 15-11. The run was fueled once again by strong serving by Sombke and kills by Thompson and Shelby Spitz. The Cougars then closed out the set on another impressive 9-2 run which saw Stamp, Johnson and Spitelli get in on the action. Most impressively Stamp and Spitelli combined to go a perfect 7-7 on attack attempts in set one where CUC finished with a .357 attack percentage.
 
Set two saw the Cougars continue to put the pressure on Northland. CUC opened the set on a 7-1 run. They then continued to find success on the offensive attack. The Cougars closed out the set with six straight points with five of those served in by Kelly Gootee.
 
Set three was the most closely contested of the match. Northland led late in the set at 24-21 when coach Campbell called a timeout. A kill by Thompson started the comeback. Then with Gootee serving once again CUC scored four more points in a row, with an ace by Gootee to put the exclamation point on the day.
 
CUC received an all-around effort in game two. Stamp finished with 12 points while Sombke finished with four aces and 14 digs to lead the team. Thompson led with eight kills while Crowley finished with 19 assists.
 
The Cougars (5-2) will now ready for two more matches tomorrow. The first comes at 10:00am against Silver Lake College with the second at 12:00pm against Bethany Lutheran.