March 9, 2019 - After 15 matches away from home to start the season, the Concordia University Chicago Cougars were happy to finally welcome the home season for men's volleyball with a match against Concordia University Wisconsin. There were certainly enough moments and stretches to delight the partisan home crowd at Geiseman Gymnasium, but It was the visitors that eventually emerged victorious with a 3-1 victory (22-25, 25-18, 25-22, 26-24).
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Brian Perez started the match at libero but wound up leading the Cougars with 15 kills.
Playing before a cheering section from his high school,
Anthony Galindo had 11 kills and a .444 attack percentage.
The Cougars had 10 more kills and 29 more hitting attempts than the Falcons, but CUC doubled CUW's number of hitting errors.
Going into the match, one of the trends that the Cougars hoped to reverse was their record in set ones, and CUC rose to the occasion in this inaugural home match. Tied at 10-10, a kill by
Virgilio Rodriguez gave the Cougars a lead that they would hold for the rest of the set. Concordia-Chicago would hit .243 on 16 kills in the opening set, and that helped them weather a Concordia Wisconsin uprising down the stretch. A CUC attack error allowed CUW to pull within 23-22, but
Matthew Geiser and
Nick Capers answered with kill shots to put set one into the Cougars' column.
Set two was all about early momentum and, unfortunately for the home side, it was the Falcons that seized it. Scoring the first three points, CUW hit a solid .529 in the set, led by James Althoff, who had five kills in seven attempts. A kill by Galindo
and an ace by Geiser tried to rally CUC late, but it was too much of a mountain to climb, and CUW closed out the set to even the match at 1-1.
In between sets two and three ,CUC head coach
Rhyen Staley made a few adjustments, one of which was moving libero Perez into the rotation. That move had an immediate impact, as Perez racked up five kills in helping the Cougars bolt to a 10-2 lead. The Falcons were able to recover from the CUC blitz by a combination of timely kills and blocks, the latter accounting for six points in set three. Concordia Wisconsin finally caught up at 20-20, and three unfortunate attack errors by the home team led to a momentum-shifting 25-22 win for CUW and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Needing a win to stay alive in the match, the Cougars raised their hitting level in set four and fought with determination. Two kills by Perez and an ace by Geiser gave CUC a 14-10 lead and threatened to extend the match to a deciding fifth set, The Cougars still led 21-19 when CUW's Isaac Glynn came up big with two kills sandwiched around a Sam Rovik ace for a 22-21 lead. Eventually, the set would be tied 24-24 when a Blake Schwandt kill and a Glynn ace would end the match.
Coach Staley described the loss as "frustrating" and added, "in three of the four sets, we had a late lead but could not finish. Having a team that is almost all freshmen, something like this is an ongoing process. 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."
The Cougars (4-12, 0-7 NACC) have three more home matches in the next seven days, beginning with a match against Benedictine University on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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