River Forest, Ill. - The Concordia University Chicago (CUC) men's volleyball team hosted their last regular season home game against Division Street rivals the Dominican Stars. After five sets of intense play, the Cougars came out on top, winning 3-2.
Inside the Box Score:
- Tyler Holubek (New Lenox, Ill.) led the Cougar offense with 23 kills, as well as had six blocks and two assists.
- Alexander Ford (Skokie, Ill.) was a wall and wouldn't allow anything past him where he added seven blocks.
- Elijah Mosher (Clayton, Ohio) had 49 assists and 19 digs to aid in the Cougar victory.
Here's What Happened
Set One
The Cougars found themselves in a 6-3 lead highlighted by a service ace from Holubek. The Stars pulled off seven unanswered points, taking a 13-8 lead over the Cougars and forcing them into their first timeout of the game.
In an 11-7 run favoring the Cougars, they would pull the game back into a tie at 19 apiece. Holubek led that charge with four kills, as well as had a solo block. Unfortunately, the Cougars were unable to gain full momentum in their favor and fell in set one with a final score of 25-23.
Set Two
The Cougars came out hot in set two with an early 3-0 lead highlighted by a solo block from Leon Gudzovski (Des Plaines, Ill.). The Cougar dominance continued on as they increased their lead to four, where the score was 7-4 led by Holubek and Ford with kills. The Stars slowly started chipping away at the lead where they got all the way to within one point with back-to-back kills where the score was 11-10, still favoring the Cougars.
The Cougars had a slight takeover where they went on a 5-0 run highlighted by kills by Marcin Hoffman (Inverness, Ill.) and Holubek, blocks by Holubek and Ford, and back-to-back aces by Gudzovski. This run pulled the Cougars ahead 17-11. The Stars did what they could to comeback, but the Cougars took set two with a final score of 25-21. Each team now had a set apiece.
Set Three
The Stars started the scoring with a kill but it didn't take long for the Cougars to take over with kills from Hoffman and Holubek, and a block by Gudzovski and Hoffman to take a 3-1 lead.
The teams would continue to go point-for-point until the Stars went on two 4-0 runs only interrupted by one kill from Holubek. With the score at 19-15, favoring the Stars, the Cougars headed to a timeout to reset. Out of timeout, the Cougars only scored four more points and fell in set two 25-1 and were now down 2-1.
Set Four
The Stars found an early 4-1 lead in set four. The Cougars clawed all the way back to a tie game at 8 apiece with kills by Hoffman, Mosher and Jackson Stella (Hoffman Estates, Ill.). The game continued on the back-and-forth trend of exchanging points until the Stars pulled ahead by three with the score at 17-14, the Cougars took a timeout. Out of timeout, the Cougars went 7-4, coming back to a tie game at 21 apiece with kills from Hoffman, Stella, and Holubek, and a block by Mosher and Gudzovski, as well as a block by Hoffman and Ford.
The Cougars fought on and took set four, forcing a fifth set, with the final score at 25-23.
Set Five
The Cougars kicked off set five with a monstrous block by Holubek and Gudzovski. From there, Geiseman Gymnasium became electric as each team would exchange kill-for-kill until the Stars were up a scary 12-7, forcing the Cougars into a timeout. Out of the timeout the Cougars went on a 5-0 run, making the score all tied up at 12 where kills from Holubek and Hoffman, solo block by Holubek, and service ace by Stella were to thank for this surge of momentum shift.
The two teams were unwilling to fall and would go back and forth, and would even go into extra points where the Cougars took the fifth set from back-to-back kills by Stella and Holubek. The final score was 18-16 and the Cougars went 3-2.
What's Next
The Cougars have one last regular season game against Marian University on Friday, April 4th at 7:00 pm. Coverage for all things CUC men's volleyball can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
