AURORA, ILL. — The Concordia University Chicago (CUC) women's volleyball team traveled just a few miles away from campus to battle the Aurora University Spartans. Even though the Cougars fell just narrowly in all three sets, they would lose this fight with the Spartans 3-0.
Inside the Box Score:
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Grace Heywood (Northbrook, Ill.) showcased her dual-threat abilities, as she picked up 13 kills and 12 digs
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As the Cougars main setter, Isabelle Vernengo (Plainfield, Ind.) had a total of 27 assists on the night
Set One
Starting off the first set, the Cougars came forward with a confident lead. They would go on a four-point rally that consisted of kills from Heywood and Akasia Brown (Addison, Ill.) 7-2. Vernengo would join the offense and pick up a kill of her own to make it 9-5. The Spartans were not going to fall easily and began to close the gap on the Cougars lead.
Aurora would start to slip and give CUC a healthy lead of 13-7. However, the Spartans immediately responded with a six-point rally, tying the game up 13-13. After a Cougar timeout, the Spartans continued their onslaught to 18-14, stealing the momentum. This wave of points pulled them all the way to set point 24-16. However, Heywood and Lili Hunt (Greenfield, Ind.) picked up kills, with a Vernengo service ace, to keep Aurora away from the first win 24-19.
Ultimately, the Cougars fell in set one with a score of 25-19.
Set Two
Aurora carried over their might into set two and took a quick 4-0 lead. Heywood and Brooke Christensen (Blaine, Minn.) would be the first CUC players to strike at 7-4. The two opponents would begin to trade off points, while Charissa Lind (St. Charles, Mo.) picked up her first service ace of the match, the set was tied 14-14.
The Spartans took a huge run and started to run away with a lead of 21-15. Lind would grab her second service ace and Heywood tallied on two more kills to cut the Aurora score to 21-18. Heywood would be leading the charge with a kill and service ace, taking the point differential to just two at 23-21.
But the Cougars could not stop the Spartans and lost set two 25-23.
Set Three
This final set began with a back and forth battle between the two opponents. Aurora would begin with a lead of 5-3, before CUC would string together a run for themselves. Tying up the score 9-9, Heywood and Hunt led the offense to try and settle the score.
Aurora continued their scoring until they made it 17-11. CUC did not let this affect them and tied the score back up at 18-18. Christensen would be the tie point, as she laid one on the court to bring the Cougars back into the game.
However, the Spartans would take over the rest of the third set and take it 25-20. The Cougars would fall to this Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference opponent with a final score of 3-0.
The Cougars will be back inside of Geiseman Gymnasium on Saturday, as they host Alverno College at 12 p.m. Coverage for all of our sports can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
