Volleyball swept in NAC action at Benedictine

Volleyball swept in NAC action at Benedictine

LISLE, Ill. – Concordia University Wisconsin's offensive struggles continued on Tuesday night at Benedictine University as it lost 3-0 (9-25, 19-25, 19-25) during Northern Athletics Conference play at the Rice Center.

The Falcons (3-16, 0-4 NAC) finished with an attacking percentage of .036 compared to the Eagles .290. There were just three lead changes and CUW led for a short period during the initial stages of the third set before BU (16-1, 3-0 NAC) used a series of kills to win the match.

Sophomore Carley Valentine (De Pere, Wis.) paced the Falcons with 15 assists, while sophomore Britta Duchow (Potter, Wis.) had a team-best five kills. Junior Lauren Gonring (Kewaskum, Wis.) and sophomore Erin Howard (Labadie, Mo.) each had seven digs.

Candice Cuppini led all players with 12 kills and Abby Sattler assisted on 35 Eagle kills. Nicole Adams and Molly Kovacich finished with nine and eight kills, respectively. Defensively, Kara Zuro and Haley Fitzgerald combined to dig 29 attack attempts.

The opening frame was all BU, as it had scoring runs of 7-0 and 9-0. After owning a 16-5 lead the Eagles recorded four kills, a service ace and capitalized on four Falcon attacking errors to own a one-set lead.

It was a different story in the second frame with both teams going back and forth. Following a 15-15 tie, BU finished the set with a 10-4 scoring run to take the frame, 25-19, and 2-0 lead in the match.

CUW began the final set of the match with three straight points to take its first lead of the match. BU answered by scoring six of the next eight points to own a 6-5 lead. The Falcons led by as many as three points again later in the frame, but the Eagles scored 18 of the final 23 points to win the match by sweep.

The Falcons return to play on Friday at 7 p.m. at Rockford College, before hosting Wisconsin Lutheran College on Saturday at 2 p.m. inside the R. John Buuck Field House.