RIVER FOREST, ILL. — After a heartbreaking loss the night before, the Concordia University Chicago (CUC) men's volleyball team looked to turn their luck around in their second day of home game action. Hosting Fontbonne University, the Cougars were able to defeat the Griffins in thrilling fashion 3-2.
Inside the Box Score:
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With career-highs galore tonight for the Cougars, Marcin Hoffman (Inverness, Ill.) led the offense with a career-high 25 kills
- Right behind him was Jackson Stella (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) with 20 kills and David Vales (Oak Forest, Ill.) with 15 kills, both of these career highs for these Cougars
- Libero Van Gaetto (Darien, Ill.) had a career-high 17 digs to help lead the defense
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Elijah Mosher (Clayton, Ohio) had a monster night, picking up a career-high 56 assists and 20 digs. Mosher was just two assists shy of breaking the CUC individual game record for assists
Set One
Fontbonne and CUC would begin this match with a battle of points back and forth. Kills from Hoffman and Stella would have the Cougars trailing the Griffins at just 7-6. The Griffins would begin mostly in front in this set, as Hoffman and Vales were able to pick up kills 14-9.
With a Fontbonne lead of 17-12, CUC would run a rally to tie the game up at 17-17. This would come from two Hoffman kills and an additional Vales kill to pull in the momentum. However, the Griffins would pull back ahead at 20-17.
As the Cougars barely trailed, Vales and Hoffman would pick up kills to be right behind Fontbonne 22-21. With a huge block up front from Mosher and Hoffman, the game would be tied up 24-24 to pull this set into extra points. However, Fontbonne would snag the next two points, winning set one 26-24.
Set Two
Drawing out their momentum from the first set, the Griffins took a quick lead of 6-3 in set two. Hoffman would pick up a kill, followed by a Ayaaz Arif (Bolingbrook, Ill.) and Mosher block, at 10-6 Fontbonne.
Vales would snag two kills of his own, but the Griffins began to tally together their points 15-9. After a Hoffman kill and two Mosher smack downs, Fontbonne still led the score 19-12.
Taking advantage of some Fontbonne miscues, Vales found some court, looking to get the Cougars back in front. Even with Hoffman picking up some last minute kills, the Griffins would win set two with a score of 25-18.
Set Three
It quickly became do-or-die time for the Cougars, down two sets in the match. Stella would start off with a kill, but Fontbonne quickly led the score 5-3. The Cougars would take the lead after kills from Hoffman and Stella, along with a Leon Gudzovski (Des Plaines, Ill.) service ace 6-5.
Kills from Hoffman, Mosher, and a huge Vales-Gudzovski block kept CUC in front 10-8. Stella grabbed some more points for the Cougars, with the score at 14-12. He would continue his stellar play with a service ace and with an assisting kill from Hoffman 17-14.
While the Cougars led most of this set, the Griffins would not be settled easily. They had a five-point rally to take the lead at 21-19. Back-to-back kills from Gudzovski and Stella, then from Hoffman, tied the game back up at 22-22.
This set would be dragged into extra points with the two teams trading points back and forth. This was accented by Vales, Stella, and Gudzovski to keep CUC in the set. The Cougars would finally take this set with a block from Hoffman and Arif 31-29.
Set Four
Heading into set four, Fontbonne would start with a lead of 6-3. Stella picked up back-to-back kills for himself, but the Griffins stayed ahead 11-8. After making the most of some Fontbonne mistakes, Stella and Hoffman made some waves and took the lead back 15-14.
The tide began to turn for the Cougars, with kills from Stella and Mosher, along with a Stella service ace 18-15. Fontbonne would continue to chip away at the lead, but kills from Vales would drag CUC ahead at 23-21.
This set would also be taken into extra points, but the duo of Stella and Hoffman would take this game to set five 26-24.
Set Five
Geiseman was electric for the fifth set of action, as the Cougar faithful rallied for momentum. Fontbonne would start off with some mistakes, having CUC in front at 4-2. The Griffins would go on a quick rally to take the lead at 7-5, but a Hoffman kill and Arif service ace had them trailing by one 9-8.
Stella would slam down a point to tie the game up at 12-12. But as the 15th point came into view, both teams would begin to trade points off, not willing to give up the battle. Hoffman and Vales kills had the game tied at 17-17.
After some Griffin miscues, Hoffman and Stella combined their power to take out the remainder of the Fontbonne defense. Winning this game in stunning fashion with a set five score of 22-20 and final score of 3-2.
The Cougars go back on the road on Tuesday to Roosevelt University for a 7 p.m. game. Coverage for all of our sports can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
