ROCK ISLAND, ILL. — Coming off of a successful opening weekend, the Concordia University Chicago (CUC) men's volleyball team traveled off-campus for some non-conference play. Taking on the Augustana College Vikings, the Cougars would fall 3-0 in this matchup, but not without impressive plays out of CUC.
Inside the Box Score:
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David Vales (Oak Forest, Ill.) and Marcin Hoffman (Inverness, Ill.) shared the offensive crown tonight, both picking up six kills
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Elijah Mosher (Clayton, Ohio) led in assists with 17 and digs with five
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Three Cougars picked up service aces
Set One
The Vikings would begin the game off at 2-0 and the Cougars would find themselves on the board at 5-2 Augustana. Jackson Stella (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) would grab the first kill of the night, along with Mosher picking up a service ace, to trail the Vikings 7-6. CUC would then tie the game up thanks to some Augustana miscues 8-8.
Leon Gudzovski (Des Plaines, Ill.) and Timothy Johnson (Indianapolis, Ind.) would be the next Cougars to tack on some kills, still behind 15-10. Vales would jump into the action at 16-12, but the Vikings would begin to run away with the set.
With Augustana leading 22-14, CUC would try and get a rally going late into the set. Hoffman would grab two kills, followed by Vales, to cut the lead 23-18. But it would be just two late, with Augustana winning set one 25-18.
Set Two
Augustana would go off to a quick 5-0 lead, carrying their momentum into set two. Stella and Hoffman would both pick up kills, then a Hoffman service ace, to have the Cougars trailing 6-4. CUC would get the ball back on a couple of Augustana miscues, but the Vikings stayed strong in their offensive play 11-6. Vales would get a big block up front to try and stop this string of points 11-8.
The Vikings then went on a long rally, taking their lead all the way to 18-9. Mosher was able to dump a ball over the net and pick up a kill to make it 19-12. With the Vikings at set point, the Cougars started to claw back. Hoffman would pick up one more kill, before Augustana won out set two with a score of 25-17.
Set Three
It became do or die time as the Cougars crossed into set three, already down two sets. The Vikings began this set with a lead of 4-1 before Hoffman, Vales, and Mosher would all pick up kills 5-4. CUC would tie the game up at 6-6 off of an Augustana mistake, then again at 9-9, courtesy of a Vales service ace.
Hoffman grabbed up a kill and Ayaaz Arif (Bolingbrook, Ill.) snagged a service ace to take the lead 11-10. The Vikings quickly took the lead back at 13-11. Stella and Mosher would both grab kills to try and slow Augustana's momentum, but they would go on a huge rally to take a lead of 19-13.
Stella and Vales would both grab one more kill each, but the Vikings were on a roll and took the rest of the final set. The Cougars would lose this set with a score of 25-16 and the game at 3-0.
The Cougars will be off until next Friday when they host Wabash College at 7 p.m. Coverage for all of our sports can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
