Fond Du Lac, Wis. - Still hopeful of making it into the Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference (NACC) tournament, the Concordia University Chicago (CUC) Cougars women's volleyball team traveled to Wisconsin to take on the Marian University Sabres. After four sets of non-stop battle, the Cougars won 3-1.
Inside the Box Score:
- Lili Hunt (Greenfield, Ind.) led the offense with 16 kills on the night.
- Bethany Roethel (Westby, Wis.) led the defense with 18 digs.
- Brooke Christensen (Blaine, Minn.) was an all around player with 14 digs, 11 kills, and three blocks.
- Malainna Adler (Fenton, Mo.)r had 24 assists on the night and teammate Janelle White (Morton Grove, Ill.) was huge in assists with 10, as well as 10 digs.
- Harmonie Cooper (Chicago, Ill.) had a whopping five blocks.
Here's What Happened
Set One
To start off tonight's holiday edition of a Cougar game day, the Cougars and the Sabres shared back-and-forth points. Led by Hunt and White, the Cougars gained a little bit of momentum and were able to find themselves in a three point lead. Hunt earned a kill and White served an ace bringing the score to 7-4, in favor of the Cougars.
After a pair of shared points between the two teams, the Sabres took off on a run, pulling them into a four-point lead where the score was 13-9. This forced the Cougars into their first timeout of the set. Out of timeout, the Sabres remained in control of the game but the Cougars continued to fight and slowly chip away at the Sabre lead. Highlighted throughout this run was kills from Hunt and Christensen and ace from Shaira Marin (Rio Grande, Puerto Rico). The score was now tied at 19 and the Cougars forced the Sabres into their first timeout of the night.
Out of timeout, the Cougars maintained their momentum where Cooper got a monster kill. The Cougars took the lead once again, where the score was 20-19.
After the Cooper kill, the Cougars and Sabres traded off points. The teams ended up going into extra points in set one where the Cougars reigned victorious. The final score of the set was 26-24, Cougars. The Cougars were up 1-0.
Set Two
The Cougars started off a little slow in set two, where the team allowed the Sabres a 4-0 run. After a Neva Foster (Parker, Colo.) kill, Hunt tricky tip, and Christensen used her strong swing for a kill. The Cougars found themselves even with the Sabres at five. The Cougars allowed the Sabres several points off of error and Sabre kills. However, great defense from Roethel followed by a strong swing from Christensen led to another Cougar kill. The Cougars trailed by one, where the score was 7-6.
After allowing a few more points for the Sabres, the Cougars shared the wealth for kills with Eve Dicken (St. Louis, Mo.) who had a monster swing.
The Cougars found themselves down three points about a third of the way through set two, and took their first timeout of set two. Out of timeout, the Cougars had a huge block, which turned out to be the start of a long stretch of dominance from the team. Still down by one, the Cougars trailed with a score of 18-19.
Foster brought forth her strength, got a kill, and tied the score at 20 points a piece. The Sabres then took their first timeout of the set.
The Cougars continued to charge forward where they only allowed the Sabres two more points in the set. Clawing back was the Cougars. They took set two with a final score of 25-22. The Cougars were up 2-0 on the night.
Set Three
The third set of the night started with another 4-0 run from the Sabres, but getting the Cougars out of that rut was Marin with back-to-back service aces.
After the Marin aces, the Cougars and the Sabres went back and forth with scoring. McKayla LeVoy (Kankakee, Ill.) took part in kills, where she helped the Cougars get ahead by one. The Cougars led where the score was 7-6. The next seven plays on the court were dominated by the Sabres where they only allowed the Cougars two points. With several kills of their own, the Sabres gained a four-point lead where the score was 12-8. Unhappy with the abrupt momentum shift, the Cougars took their first timeout of the set. Out of timeout the Cougars struggled to find their rhythm and the Sabres remained on top. It seemed that for every point the Cougars earned, the Sabres earned two. With that, the score favored the Sabres at 17-12, really only allowing points for the Cougars from their own attack errors. Hunt was ready to take over and got a super important kill for the Cougars.
After the Hunt kill, Roethel found an open spot on the court and served an ace for Cougars. The Sabres, seemingly shocked by the shift in favor of the Cougars, found themselves struggling to side out. The Sabres would call their first timeout of the set in hope of stopping the Cougar run. The score was 18-16, in favor of the Sabres. Out of timeout, Hunt and LeVoy did not allow a kill to come past them and got a major block. This tied the score up at 18. From then, the score was 21-19 in favor of the Sabres, forcing the Cougars into their second timeout of the night. Out of timeout, the Sabres showed their determination and remained ahead. The Sabres 25th point came from a service ace. They took set three where the final score was 25-21. The Cougars still lead the sets 2-1.
Set Four
Akasia Brown (Addison, Ill.) started off set four denying a Sabre kill and getting a block.
Similar to the previous sets, we saw the teams sharing points, but the Sabres were able to get a 5-point lead, where the score was 9-4. Looking to stop their run before it was too far gone, the Cougars took their first timeout of set four. Out of timeout, Christensen was able to get a quick kill for the Cougars, making the score 9-5.
Following the kill, Cooper got a block and Dicken got another kill. The Cougars attempted to get ahead but again the Sabres took over, where the score was 12-9. To the Cougars' benefit, the Sabres struggled to stay out of the net. After a hard fought rally, Dicken got a kill for the Cougars and tied the score up at 12 points.
The next eight points were split evenly between the Cougars and the Sabres. However, the Sabres took a lead late in the set and found themselves ahead by three. The score was 19-16, and the Cougars took their second timeout of the set. The Sabres were able to get a point out of timeout, but blocks from Cooper brought the Cougars back to a tied game at 20-20. The Cougars continued to fight, unwillingly to lose another set. Playing amazing defense, Christensen put her body on the line, which allowed space for a Rachel Livesay (Medinah, Ill.) kill, which brought the Cougars ahead by one in set four. It was a battle until the very end but the final point of the night came from a block by the Cougars.
Taking set four, the final score was 25-21. The Cougars won 3-1.
What's Next
The Cougars will be back at home on Saturday, November 2nd to take on Lakeland University in NACC play. The Cougars will also be celebrating their seniors before the start of the game. First serve is set for 12:00pm. Come out and support the seniors and the team. Coverage for all things CUC women's volleyball can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
