River Forest, Ill. - The Concordia University Chicago (CUC) Cougars men's volleyball team stayed at home to host another round of Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference (NACC) competition against the Green Knights of St. Norbert College. It was an all-around battle for both teams where the game went to five sets. After five sets of play, the Cougars came out on top after going into extra points in the fifth set and took the win 3-2.
Inside the Box Score:
- Tyler Holubek (New Lenox, Ill.) led the Cougars with 19 kills and eight digs.
- Alexander Ford (Skokie, Ill.) and Leon Gudzovski (Des Plaines, Ill.) each had 12 kills to add to the Cougar win.
- Elijah Mosher (Clayton, Ohio) had a whopping 55 assists, as well as six digs and three kills.
Here's What Happened
Set One
The Cougars were first on the board with a kill by Gudzovski. The Green Knights quickly matched this kill with one of their own, but the Cougars took an early lead where Ford, Mosher, and Marcin Hoffman (Inverness, Ill.) each contributed with kills making the score 5-2, favoring the Cougars. The Cougars maintained their three-point lead until an error that brought the Green Knights within two and the score to 11-9, still favoring the Cougars.
The deficit stayed within two for the remainder of the set where an ace by Gudzovski would be the final point of the set to bring the Cougars to take set one 26-24.
Set Two
In this set, the Green Knights were the first to be on the board until a kill by Holubek would tie the Cougars up with a score of two apiece. The Green Knights would begin to charge forward and take a 9-5 lead forcing the Cougars to take their first time out of the set. Out of time the Cougars attempted to come back, but the Green Knight dominance would continue on. After the Cougars found themselves trailing by six they would call a second time out in hopes of a reset. The score was now 17-11 favoring the Green Knights. Unfortunately, the efforts of Gudzovski, Holubek, and Jackson Stella (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) would not be enough for the Cougars in the second set and they would fall with the final score of 25-18.
Heading into the third set each team now had one win under their plate.
Set Three
Stella put the Cougars on the board first with a kill, but this was quickly answered by kills and an ace by the Green Knights allowing them to take an early lead at 5-1. However, the Cougars came back just as strong with three kills thanks to two by Holubek and one by Gudzovski tying the score back up at five apiece. The back-and-forth battle would continue until the Cougars found themselves up by four. Back to back points for the Cougars could be highlighted by a solo block from Gudzovski and a block assist by Gudzovski and Hoffman. The Cougars were now up 14-10.
The Cougars maintained their lead but slowly, but surely the Green Knights would claw their way back until the game was all tied up 18 apiece forcing the Cougars to take their first time out of the third set. Out of timeout, the Cougars would pull themselves into a 21-19 lead and force the Green Knights to take their first time out. The two teams battled until the very end, but the Cougars would maintain their lead of two points and take the third set with the final score of 25-23. The Cougars were now up two sets to one.
Set Four
The Green Knights had an early 3-0 lead, but their dominance was ended by a kill from Holubek making the score 3-1, favoring the green Knights. The Cougara struggled to get anything offensively going and with the score at 11-4 favoring the Green Knights the Cougars took their first time out of the fourth set. It seemed that for each kill a Cougar would get the Green Knights would answer with two.
With this dominance in place the Green Knights would take set four with the final score of 25-14. Heading into set five each team now had two wins under their belt.
Set Five
Gudzovski opened the fifth set with an ace, setting the tone for the remainder of the set.
However, after a few back-and-forth kills between Green Knights and Ford for the Cougars, the Green Knights would go on a four-point run and take a three-point lead making the score 7-4. Kills by Hoffman, Stella and Holubek, as well as a block by Gudzovski and Stella would pull the Cougars right back into the match making the game and score tied at eight apiece. From there, the two teams would exchange kills as well as exchange of the lead where the fifth set would go into extra points. Contributing to the final two points of the game would be a block by Gudzovski and Holubek and a final kill by Holubek.
The final score of the set was 19-17 and the Cougars would win after a full five set game.
What's Next
The Cougars will be back inside Geiseman Gymnasium for another NACC matchup against Wisconsin Lutheran College (WLC) on Wednesday, March 19 with the first serve set for 7:00 pm. Coverage for all things CUC men's volleyball can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
