River Forest, Ill. -- In their final regular season home game of the season, Concordia Chicago (10-13, 5-4 NACC) took on Wisconsin Lutheran College (15-7, 6-2 NACC). The Cougars were tested with a good Warriors team, but were able to execute the sweep with the best all-around team effort of the season.
In the first set, the two teams battled close through the early points. A service error by WLC tied up the set at 8-8, which then turned into a CUC lead at 11-8 with a kill by
Jaylynn Johnson with
Jennifer Livesay serving. The Warriors battled back to take the lead once again, but the Cougars were able to answer with a 5-0 run of their own with
Courtney Luciano serving to force a WLC timeout. The Cougars continued to build on their lead, getting kills by Livesay and Johnson to close out set one 25-18.
In set two, the Cougars came out hot to start the set. Kills by
Shannon Stamp and Johnson gave CUC the early lead. Again the teams battled tight into the last points as CUC extended their lead out to 19-16 on a
Julia Beers ace. The Cougars then closed out the set with an impressive 6-0 run to close out set two 25-17. Kills by Livesay, Stamp and Johnson fueled the run, with Livesay putting the stamp on the set with a solo block.
Set three was much of the same story. CUC built up a 9-4 lead early with a kill and two aces by Stamp. The Cougars continued to build momentum from there, using another 6-0 run with
Elise Sombke serving to take an 18-10 advantage. CUC cruised from there, getting kills by
Julia Spitelli to close out the three set victory 25-18.
Serving was a big factor in the match as the Cougars finished with ten aces to WLC's one. Johnson led CUC with 14 kills on the day.
Nicoletta Crowley finished with 34 assists and Sombke led with 21 digs.
The Cougars will now ready for the final week of conference play. They will begin the closing road stretch at Illinois Tech on Tuesday night. Opening serve is set for 7:00pm.
