March 22, 2019 - Concordia-Chicago (4-15; 0-10 NACC) faced off against Marian University (9-10; 7-4 NACC) in the teams' second matchup this season. In the first match, Marian took the win in straight sets. CUC looked to flip their fortune in this one and take home their first conference win. Concordia-Chicago, after dropping set one, climbed back and snagged set two, but Marian took the next two sets handily and would go on to win the match (25-20, 21-25, 25-11, 25-15).
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
An early
Ryan Felbinger spike set the tone and shook the Marian defense. The Sabres would get back on track after the huge point and take command of the set at 5-2. Anchored by two huge blocks, CUC remained close with back-and-forth scoring efforts into the halfway point. Capers soon sprung the Cougars into a 15-13 lead after two monstrous kills and gave Concordia-Chicago momentum moving forward. Marian combated the momentum with stellar defense and gritted out set one 25-20.
Starting off set two, back and forth action was the narrative once again. A block by Geiser, and
Ricardo Ruiz gave the Cougars their biggest lead of the night at 13-10. They increased the lead to 16-11 after another block coming from Ruiz and
Skylar Versendaal. A couple of serves later a Sabres' sideout helped the CUC attack break through to 20 first where they held a four-point lead. Unfortunately, Marian would quickly match Concordia-Chicago at 20-20. Capers kept up the streak of big blocks and closed out the second set 25-21 in favor of the Cougars.
Set three did not start off ideally for the CUC faithful. They would stumble to a 5-1 deficit early on before taking a timeout. The timeout did not stop the surging Sabres' attack and forced Concordia-Chicago into their second timeout early in the set trailing 13-6. To the Cougars' dismay, the second timeout could not halt the Marian offense and CUC was chasing a 19-9 score late in set three. Moments later, the Sabres would close out the third set 25-11.
In the fourth set, the Sabres started off hot and took the first three points. The Cougars dug themselves into another hole, down 13-6, and were forced to call their first timeout of the set after a second small run by Marian. CUC was forced to take their final timeout of the set after another Sabres' run put them behind 18-10. That momentum would carry Marian to the 25-15 win and regular-season sweep of the Cougars.
Concordia-Chicago will look ahead to Saturday, March 23 where they will face off against NACC opponent Lakeland University at 1 p.m.
