St. Louis, MO.---The Cougars men's volleyball team (1-7,0-1) traveled down to St. Louis this weekend to take part in the Fontbonne Invitational. CUC opened play on Saturday with a doubleheader versus Augustana College (4-6,0-0) and Loras College (9-0,0-0). The day ended with Concordia failing to record a set win, dropping both matches 3-0. 

Inside the Box Score

• Sophomore David Vales (Oak Forest, Ill.) had a good set of games, recording a total of 13 kills between the two. Vales led the Cougars in kills against Augustana with seven, while placing second on the team in that category versus Loras with five.
• Junior Tyler Holubek (New Lenox, Ill.) lit up the assists category versus Augustana with 15. He also added six against Loras, while leading the team in kills that match with seven. 
• Senior Virgilio Rodriguez (Cicero, Ill.) led Concordia in a multitude of stats against Loras match-up, including blocks (2), assists (13), and digs (4). 

Match one: Augustana College

Set one was a back-and-forth affair to start, featuring ties at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, and 4-4. The Cougars were able to build a three point lead however after an attack error by Josh Van Essen gave CUC a 7-4 advantage. Augustana would not back down though, eventually tying the set at 11. 

It was all Vikings after that, who went on a 14-3 run to claim set one 25-14.

Set two was a much tighter affair towards the end. By the middle, it was looking much like a repeat of set one's results. Augustana led 17-11 at one point, but a Vales kill sparked an 11-7 run that brought the Cougars within two of the Vikings, 24-22. 

A costly attack error by junior Matthew Lams (Brookfield, Ill.) awarded the set to Augustana, putting the Cougars in a 2-0 whole in the match.

Augustana never trailed in the final set. CUC did their best to keep up with the Vikings, only trailing by one after a service ace by senior Erickberto Perez (Melrose Park, Ill.) made the score 7-6. Augustana eventually created some space after two seperate 4-0 runs ran the score up to 15-7. Concordia picked up some steam by the end, going on an 11-9 run to shrink the deferential down to six. 

Much like set two, set three ended with a CUC attack error, this one coming from senior Ricardo Ruiz (Lynwood, Ill.). That error, clinching set three 25-18 for Augustana, would also be the nail in the coffin for Cougars' match victory hopes, who dropped their first match of the day 3-0. 

Match two: Loras College

CUC came out firing against Loras in their second match of the day. In set one, the Cougars built a quick 7-5 lead off a Holubek kill, but a 4-point run by Loras erased the Cougar lead and gave the Duhawks a 9-7 advantage. Concordia would pull back within one twice at 9-8 and 10-9 thanks to a Joe Horn service error and a kill by freshman Josh Rapley (Elgin, Ill.) respectively.

It was all Duhawks the rest of the set however, who finished off the set with a six point run. Set one's final score was 25-14. 

Set two was more of the same for Concordia. It was a tight set until about the midway point when an attack error from Duhawk Tyler Kratochvil set the score at 11-9. Then the floodgates burst open.

Fueled by three separate three point runs, Loras established an eight point lead, 20-12. A Holubek service ace closed the gap to seven, 23-16, but the final two points of the set were earned by the Duhakws, who clinched the second set 25-16. 

Facing their second 3-0 loss of the day, the Cougars led multiple times to start the third set. Seven different leads were held by Concordia, the final one coming off a Holubek kill to put the score at 11-10. 

The Duhawks put their foot down following that, using a four-point swing to build a 14-11 lead. Loras would later use another hot streak to set the score at 23-14. A David Beach service error kept the Cougars' hopes alive for a little longer, but Loras once again used a two point swing to clinch the set, this one 25-15. 

With that set loss, the Cougars officially dropped their second match of the day 3-0, finishing up the winless day for the Cougars. The team will look to turn things around Sunday as they wrap up play at the Fontbonne Invitational. At 8 A.M., CUC will take on the hosting Fontbonne Griffins, who are the #15 ranked team in the country. Then, they will finish the weekend with a game against Trine University set for 1 P.M. Coverage for those games along with all CUC action can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.