March 13, 2019 - The Cougars' six-match home stand continues the next two nights with matches against schools that are currently battling for position in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference.

Benedictine University is first up on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. The Eagles, ranked fifth in this week's AVCA Division III poll, currently hold down the top spot in the NACC with an 8-1 record (15-2 overall). They are led by right side hitter Elijah Medlock and setter Joe Lock, the NACC leaders in kills and assists per set, respectively. Benedictine topped CUC back on Feb. 21 by scores of 25-20, 25-19 and 25-14.

On Thursday night, Aurora University comes to Geiseman for another 7 p.m. start. Aurora (6-7, 5-2 NACC with a match at Dominican tonight) is currently in third place in the NACC and fighting for one of the top two seeds in the conference tournament. The Spartans are led by the hitting of Tim Breiter (139 kills) and the blocking of Daniel Pytel (1.10 blocks per set, second in the NACC). This will be the first of two meetings this season between AU and CUC.

The Cougars' home opener this past Saturday resulted in a closely-played four sets, with Concordia Wisconsin eventually prevailing 22-25, 25-18, 25-22, 26-24. Brian Perez led CUC with 15 kills (.357) and Anthony Galindo added 11 (.444), but the Cougars' undoing was giving up leads toward the end of sets. Concordia-Chicago head coach Rhyen Staley knows that his nearly all-freshmen team will learn how to better close out sets, and adds that "Once we figure it out, we'll forget how rough it was, but for now we need to keep working at it, both from the mental and physical angles."