March 1, 2019 - A long journey that will have covered 15 matches in 10 different venues comes to an end Saturday night for Concordia-Chicago men's volleyball. The final three matches of their lengthy road trip to start the season will be played this weekend, with a Friday night conference match at MSOE followed by two on Saturday at Trinity Christian College against the host team and Saint Xavier University, both NAIA schools and members of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletics Conference.

The Cougars (4-8, 0-5 NACC) are currently on an eight-match skid after a 4-0 start, but perhaps none of those losses was as tough as the last one on Wednesday night. Trailing North Park University 0-2, CUC rallied to win sets three and four before taking a 6-2 lead at the beginning of set five. However, a combination of hitting, ball-handling and serving errors allowed the Vikings to come back and win the set 15-11 and the match 3-2.

" We have an understanding of what happened at North Park. The key is to learn and train, and understanding that we have a long-term focus on getting better, not just a short-term," said head coach Rhyen Staley.

A couple of Cougars hit some high marks for the season on Wednesday, with Matthew Geiser's 19 kills and Brian Perez's 13 kills leading the attack. Percentage-wise, Anthony Galindo had an outstanding night with 10 kills and one error in 16 chances for a .563. Virgilio Rodriguez chipped in with eight kills, many of them late in the match when the Cougars were rallying.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
MSOE: The Raiders are 8-6 on the season (3-2 in the NACC) after last night's five-set loss to Cardinal Stritch. They began the week in the "also receiving votes" category for the AVCA Division III poll. MSOE is led by 6-4 outside hitter Ben Pung with 162 kills.

Trinity Christian: The Trolls are 8-6 this season, although they have lost four of their last five (coincidentally, their most recent result also a five-set loss to Cardinal Stritch). Djordje Novakovic, a 6-3 opposite side hitter, leads TCC with 126 kills while 6-4 middle Jonathan Poortinga has 53 total blocks (11-42).

Saint Xavier: Also known as the Cougars, SXU is 10-4 and currently #10 in the NAIA national rankings. They are led by Ben Gabor's 168 kills and Kyle Springer's 166 kills. In addition, Jake Olson was just named the conference's Defensive Player of the Week.