RIVER FOREST, ILL. — After a long period of games on the road, the Concordia University Chicago (CUC) men's volleyball team returned to Geiseman Gymnasium for a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) matchup. The Cougars welcomed Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) for a night cap game and would lose to the Scarlet Hawks 3-0.
Inside the Box Score:
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The offense was led by Jackson Stella (Hoffman Estates, Ill.), who has eight kills on the night
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Elijah Mosher (Clayton, Ohio) led in three key categories; blocks with three, assists with 23, and digs with 13
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Sean Beckman (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) joined Mosher with three total blocks to his name
Set One
The Scarlet Hawks started off this set with a vengeance, as they quickly took a 8-1 lead. This was broken up by a Mosher and Leon Gudzovski (Des Plaines, Ill.) block and kills from Stella and David Vales (Oak Forest, Ill.). However, IIT continued to trek on, picking up to a score of 16-5.
Beckman would be able to knock one down on IIT, along with Gudzovski and Marcin Hoffman (Inverness, Ill.) laying down a block, to have the Cougars trailing 18-8. However, the Scarlet Hawks would not slow down, making the score 24-8 in their favor. Gudzovski would pick up one more kill before IIT took set one 25-9.
Set Two
CUC looked to build back from their set one mistakes, starting off with a 3-3 tie. Hoffman and Stella would both pick up kills to have the trailing IIT 6-5. The Scarlet Hawks would go on a bit of a run at 12-6, within this Vales would try to stop the rally, but IIT continued steady in their play.
After a Mosher and Ayaaz Arif (Bolingbrook, Ill.) block, followed by kills from Hoffman, Stella, and Vales, the Cougars were wanting to get a comeback started 15-11. After some Scarlet Hawk mistakes, Beckman and Vales would make some timely kills to bring the Cougars within one 17-16.
Stella and Hoffman continued to be the offensive catalysts, but IIT could not be stopped, as they took set two 25-20.
Set Three
The Cougars did not want to go down easy, as they took a quick lead of 3-1 to open the third set. Vales and Stella would team up to try and turn the tide in CUC's favor, taking a healthy lead of 8-3. Hoffman joined the duo, bringing further action on the Cougars side of the ball 11-4.
After a Hoffman kill to make it 13-7, IIT went on a huge rally to be within one of the Cougars lead. Beckman picked up another kill on the night, but CUC would get their lead overtaken with a score of 16-15. Arif and Stella would take some great shots, wanting to take the third set in their hands 19-19.
With the set evened out, the Scarlet Hawks took complete control of the wheel and ran away with the third set 25-22. The Cougars would lose to the Scarlet Hawks 3-0.
The Cougars will be heading to the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Saturday for a game at 1 p.m. Coverage for all of our sports can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
