RIVER FOREST, ILL.- That's a close on the Concordia Chicago University (CUC) women's volleyball 2025 season. The program played their best efforts this season and showcased many great moments for the team. The Cougars finished 12th in the Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference (NACC), with an 6-20 overall record and a 2-11 record in conference play.
Season Recap
The Cougars kicked off their season at the Great Lakes Crossover in Sandusky, Ohio, where they competed in four matches against Muskingum University, Baldwin Wallace University, Heidelberg University and Francisan University of Steubenville. The Cougars secured a victory over Francisan University of Steubenville, showcasing their strong team effort and individual player highlights.
Lili Hunt (Greenfield, Ind.) led the team with a total of 35 kills across the four matches followed by
Indiah Day (Merrillville, Ind.) who made her collegiate debut and contributed 25 kills. Seniors
Eva Fitzgerald (Houston, Texas) and
Janelle White (Morton Grove, Ill.) made significant contributions with assists and digs. Fitzgerald totaled 73, while White led the Cougars with 46 digs over the weekend.
September 6th marked the Cougar's home opener, where they swept the Beavers of Blackburn College, 3-0. Hunt and Day each scored double-digit kills, 15 and 11.
Malainna Adler (Fenton, Mo.) led offensively with 24 assists, along with reaching double-digits of ten digs. Defensively White stood out with 18 digs in the match before the team headed on the road again.
At the Marilyn Scribner Invitational, CUC faced tough matches and fell short in all three against Lawrence University, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Wheaton College. Despite the losses, multiple Cougars demonstrated outstanding performances in their gameplay over the weekend. Day continued to set a high standard, finishing with 27 kills and 25 digs. Both Adler and Fitzgerald, racked up 52 and 45 assists. The Cougars played hard competition as preparation for conference play. Continuing their non-conference schedule for the Cougars, as they went 1-1 against Eureka College and Lake Forest College, where Hunt led both with 24 kills in total for both matches. The Cougars headed on the road to face off in their first conference match of the season.
On September 24th, conference play started for the Cougars against Rockford University, they lost after five sets of play, 5-2. Day recorded two career high records with 28 digs and 23 kills to lead the Cougars. Along with Adler performing a season high of 50 assists and Hunt contributing 12 kills to the team.
The Cougars traveled to Alma, Michigan to participate in the Alma College Invitational. The Cougars' first two matches were against Calvin University and Anderson University, where they fell short and lost both matches with a score of 3-0. Turning things around, they faced Alma College, where they swept their opponent with strong performances.
Neva Foster (Parker, Colo.) led the Cougars offense in match one where she had ten kills, the only Cougar to reach double-digits. Defensively, Day and
Bethany Roethel (Westby, Wis.) led the back line where they had 12 and 11 digs, respectively.
The Cougars' next six matches were against conference opponents, Edgewood University, St.Norbert College, Illinois Institute of Technology, Alverno College, Benedictine College and Wisconsin Lutheran College before reaching their bye week. The Cougars fell in five matches, securing one win against Alverno College. Day and
Isabel Valle (Chino, Calif.) continued to dominate the courts for the Cougars with recording high numbered stats. To honor their seniors, the Cougars were set to play Marian on senior day following the bye week.
After the bye week, the Cougars finished off the rest of the regular season going 1-5. After losses to Concordia University Wisconsin, Marian University, Aurora University and Milwaukee School of Engineering, the Cougars picked up momentum and swept Dominican University. Day, Hunt and Foster led the Cougars with 11, 8, and 7 kills respectively against Dominican while
Rosemary Brenner (Frankenmuth, Mich.) played strong defensively, recording 14 digs. The Cougars ended their season with a loss to Lakeland University, they unfortunately missed the NACC tournament.
"11 weeks kind of flew by really quickly," Head Coach
Andrew Palmer said. "There was a lot of growth that happened [this season]. We're a really young team and with the style that we're playing, we're in a lot better place than we've been - just continuing to learn and grow. The style didn't always produce a lot of wins, but we're statistically a lot better than where we've been in the past and we're going to continue to build on those things."
Postseason Honors
One outstanding Cougar would receive postseason honors. Hunt picked up her second consecutive honors and was named All-Conference Honorable Mention.
Hunt earned All-Conference Honorable Mention. As an opposite hitter, she played in 26 matches while starting with 24 and 217 total kills while picking up 2.31 kills per set. In addition, this season she picked up a career-high tying 16 kills against Marian on senior day, career-high 19 points against Alverno, and season-high 14 digs against Rockford. In the NACC, Hunt finished 20th in kills and 21st in total points, one of seven Cougars to break the top 25 in any category. She finished her career as a two-time All-NACC honoree, two times Honorable Mention.
Conference Statistic Leaders
The Cougars had several outstanding performances that ranked in the conference statistics.
Eva Fitzgerald stood out in her senior season, ranking first in the NACC in service aces, 0.83 per set.
In her first collegiate season,
Indiah Day ranked 17 of all conference combined points, with a total of 245. She climbed to 19th in the NACC with 205 kills for the regular season.
Lili Hunt was a consistent piece to the Cougar offense. She hit the top 20 in the conference for kills, averaging 2.31 per set. She was ranked 21st for points with a 2.57 average per set.
Both
Janelle White and
Bethany Roethel cracked the top 20 list for digs, 13th and 19th. White averaged 3.27 per set and Roethel averaged 3.01 per set.
Along with
Ava Quevedo (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and
Harmonie Cooper (Chicago, Ill.) placing top 25 for the NACC, 0.73 and 0.62 being their average for the Cougars.
Graduating Seniors
Kate Foley (Milwaukee, Wis.) appeared in 17 matches, with six starts this season. She totaled 53 kills and 58.5 points.
Lili Hunt appeared in 26 games, with 24 starts of the season. She led the teams with 217 kills and second on the team points with a total of 242.
Eva Fitzgerald started in 11 matches, playing in 19. She ranked first in service aces with a total of 52 and 16 kills.
McKayla Levoy
(Kankakee, Ill.) appeared in ten games, playing in nine for the season. She has a total of 26 kills.
Janelle White played in 18 games. This season she placed 13th for the NACC for digs.
Other Top Performers
Ava Quevedo appeared in 26 games with 89 sets played. She's ranked 13th for the NACC in blocks.
Indiah Day appeared in 25 games with 25 starts. She ranked first for points with a total of 245 and second with 205 kills.
Malainna Adler appeared in 23 games with 11 starts. She recorded the most assists this season with 346 in total.
Neva Foster and
Harmonie Cooper tied for 89 kills this season.
Statistical Leaders
Kills:
Lili Hunt (217)
Assists:
Malainna Adler (346)
Service Aces:
Eva Fitzgerald (52)
Digs:
Janelle White (183)
Blocks:
Ava Quevedo (65)
Season Highlights
Up Next
All things regarding CUC women's volleyball, including roster updates, schedules, and statistics, can be found at cucougars.com.
