RIVER FOREST, ILL. — On Thursday night, Concordia University Chicago (CUC) women's volleyball (9-13, 1-8) played host to the Spartans of Aurora University (15-10, 8-1). The Cougars skid in conference play continued as they dropped the match 3-0. 

 

-Inside the Box Score

• Neva Foster (Parker, Colo.) led the Cougars in kills with 12. She also had a block. 

• Malainna Adler (Fenton, Mo.) dished out 18 assists, the most of any Cougar.

• Defensively, Bethany Roethel (Westby, Wis.) led the way with her 13 digs. 

 

-How It Happened

 

First Set

The Spartans jumped out to a hot start, building an 8-3 lead in the blink of an eye. Not letting the game get out of hand too quickly, the Cougars used a four-point run to claw back within one, 8-7. Aurora was able to eventually jump their lead back up to four however when the scoreboard read 12-8.

 

CUC then used another 4-0 run, capped off by a Foster kill, to knot the game up at 12-12. The dueling squads split the following six points to find themselves tied again at 15-15. This is where Aurora put their foot down however, taking the last 10 points of the set to clinch a 25-15 victory in set one. 

 

Second Set

Set two was a more even affair to start, as the teams found ties at 4-4, 8-8, and 9-9. A 4-2 run by Aurora briefly put the Spartans up by a pair of points, but back-to-back points from the Cougars tied the game up again at 13.

 

Similar to set one, the Spartans commenced to go on a major run in the middle of the set, using eight straight points to take a 21-13 lead. However, unlike set one, the Cougars were able to crawl back in this set. Consecutive points from Concordia made it 21-15, and another three-point spree brought CUC within four, 22-18.

 

Unfortunately for the Cougars, the teams started trading scores at this point and CUC ran out of runway, losing the set 25-20 and going down 2-0 in the match.

 

Third Set

Set three was another close set to start with the teams trading points and two-point runs with each other. With the score at 6-6, Aurora finally put up a decent run when they dropped three straight points to go up 9-6. A Foster kill ended this brief spree, but a 4-1 Spartan run made it 13-8 and forced the Cougars to use their first timeout. 

 

CUC scored the first point out of the timeout of an Aurora service error, but four straight from the Spartans quickly made it 17-9 Aurora. The Cougars did not score back-to-back points for the rest of the set, eventually dropping the set 25-12 and the match 3-0.

 

-Up Next

Concordia heads to Milwaukee this Saturday, Oct. 26, for a 12 p.m. match with Alverno College. Coverage for the game can be found at cucougars.com.