March 23, 2019 - A home stand of six matches over 15 days came to an end today for the Concordia-Chicago men's volleyball team. They welcomed Lakeland University to Geiseman Gymnasium for a rematch from early February. The match started out as a tough battle, but the visiting Muskies wore down the Cougars as things progressed, and Lakeland eventually won in three sets (25-21, 25-18, 25-12).Â
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
Nick Capers had one of his strongest matches of the season with 13 kills and a .320.
Lakeland's two middle hitters combined for 17 kills and a .600 attack.
The Muskies hit a collective .413, the highest attack percentage for a match this year by a CUC opponent.
The two teams played a crisp first set despite a quick turnaround from playing matches last night. Lakeland bolted to a 7-1 lead behind the serving of Matt Misheck, but CUC slowly chipped away with a couple of kills by
Skylar Versendaal leading the way. Later in the set, a kill by
Ryan Felbinger and back-to-back aces by
Nick Capers allowed the Cougars to catch the Muskies at 17-17. However, Lakeland scored the next two points, and although kills from Versendaal and Capers would keep it close, the Muskies would hold on to win the opening set 25-21.
Kills by Felbinger and
Anthony Galindo gave CUC an early 2-0 lead in set two, but Lakeland recovered and later took the lead with a 4-0 run. Consecutive kills by Versendaal and
Virgilio Rodriguez pulled the Cougars back within 16-12, but the Muskies reeled off the next three points and continued on to a 25-18 win to go up 2-0 in the match.
Set three was the least amount of drama as Lakeland raced out to a lead of 10-4. They would extend the lead to 19-7 and finally to a 25-12 win despite Capers striking for four kills on five attempts.
The Cougars (4-17, 0-12 NACC) will play three matches on the road next weekend, beginning with a Friday night match at Dominican University.
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