March 14, 2019 - Concordia-Chicago's men's volleyball team looked to bounce back after falling to Benedictine University in the first of back-to-back home matches last night. Tonight, CUC hosted Aurora University in the first of two matches this season. Unfortunately, Aurora got off to a strong start, and they bested Concordia-Chicago in three sets (25-13, 25-18, 25-21).
 
Inside the Box Score:
Nick Capers led the hard-hitting offensive attack with 10 kills, followed by Skylar Versendaal and Brian Perez with six kills each.
Matthew Geiser distributed 20 assists.
As a whole, Concordia-Chicago recorded three service aces.
 
The Spartans came out firing and forced CUC to call an early timeout, down 6-1. Following the timeout, Capers blasted a kill right past the AU defense to get the Cougars back on track. A small run by the Spartans would come after the big spike, but Capers would shut that down with another monstrous spike to make it 12-5. However, Aurora would press on the gas pedal for the rest of set one and pull away to a 25-13 win.
 
Perez set CUC in motion in set two with a kill coming off of an assist from Geiser. Concordia-Chicago battled more efficiently early in the set, and only trailed 7-5. Concordia-Chicago looked to stay in the chase as Capers sent another emphatic spike across the net and kept the deficit reasonable at 13-7. However, four straight points secluded the kill and forced CUC to call a timeout down 17-7. An 8-2 Concordia-Chicago run would make it interesting, but the deficit was too much to overcome and the Cougars would fall 25-18.
 
In the final set, two AU attack errors, an ace by Perez and a Capers' kill gave CUC a quick 4-0 start. Although the Cougars started quickly, the Spartans would storm back and lead 16-15 a little over midway through the set. Big plays from the Concordia-Chicago attack kept them within striking distance, trailing only 21-20 with the opportunity to score off a Ryan Felbinger serve. However, they would not capitalize off the serve and eventually drop the set 25-21.
 
 Concordia-Chicago will look ahead to Illinois Institute of Technology on Saturday, March 16^th at 1 p.m.