On Friday, April 8, the Saint Xavier men’s volleyball team competed in the CCAC Conference Tournament, where the winner of this tournament earns a spot in the NAIA National Championship Tournament. The Cougars would pick up a win against Trinity Christian, but a loss to Saint Ambrose would end their season.
From the get-go, the Cougars and the Trolls would show that this game would be a tight contest throughout. Both teams would trade points back and forth with each other in the first set resulting in a 10-9 lead for Trinity Christian.
At this point, Trinity Christian would go on a 5-2 run to extend their to 15-11. The Cougars would strike back though, scoring four of the next six points to close the gap to 17-15. But the Cougars’ rival would immediately respond with their own 4-2 to retake a four point lead at 21-17.
The set would end just like it started, as both teams would trade points with each other, resulting in a 25-21 set win for the Trolls and a 1-0 game lead for them as well. With the Cougars down 1-0 in the game, the Cougars would need to come back and win this second set if they wanted to have a realistic chance of winning this game.
That mindset would take shape from the very beginning of the set, as the Cougars would score eight of the first 12 points to take an early 8-4 lead. However, this solid lead would dwindle as a TCC 5-2 run would make the score 10-9 in favor of the Cougars.
From this point, both teams would trade points back and forth with each other until the score was 17-16 in favor of the Cougars. With the game reaching its end, the Cougars would end the set how it started, with an 8-4 run with this 8-4 run giving them a 25-20 set win and tying the game 1-1.
With momentum on their side, the Cougars would jump out to an early 9-3 third set lead. Behind a great attack, the Cougars would continue to extend its lead throughout the set en route to a big 18-10 lead. However, Trinity Christian would bounce back, going on a massive 11-4 run to cut the Cougars’ lead to 22-21.
With the set so close and with so much on the line, the Cougars would show how clutch they can be, going on a 3-1 run to clinch the set 25-22 and take a crucial 2-1 game lead. With the game on the line for both teams, the Cougars and the Trolls would give everything they had in order to finish or extend this game and move on to the next round.
The heart of both teams would show itself early as both teams would go back and forth with one another en route to a 10-10 tie. From this point though, the Cougars’ will and determination would shine through as they would go on a massive 11-3 run to take a commanding 21-13 lead.
This time however, the Cougars would not allow for their opponents to come back scoring four of the last seven points of the set to win it by a score of 25-16 and win the game 3-1. The victory would push them to the next round of the tournament and a matchup with Saint Ambrose University.
The Cougars’ matchup with Saint Ambrose would not go as well as their first game, with the Cougars getting trounced from the get-go. The first set would start out miserably for the Cougars as the Bees would jump out to an early 10-3 lead.
The bad start could have most likely been due to fatigue as the Cougars had just played a tightly contested game earlier in the day against Trinity Christian. The Cougars would show some grit as they would score three straight points to cut the score to 10-6.
But once again, it seemed as though fatigue would play a factor in this set as Saint Ambrose would go on a huge 10-2 run to extend their lead to 20-8. From there, both teams would trade points en route to a 25-11 set win and a 1-0 game lead.
The Cougars were once again faced with a 1-0 game deficit and would have to once again win the all-important second set in order to have any shot of winning the game. Knowing this, the Cougars would give everything they had into this set, combating their apparently superior opponent point for point.
This set featured back and forth action throughout, with the Cougars even leading multiple times throughout the set. The turning point of the set would come with it tied at 18. From this point, it seemed as though the Cougars could not sustain the energy that allowed them to remain close to Saint Ambrose.
The set would end with a 7-4 run from the Bees, giving them a 25-22 set win and a commanding 2-0 game lead. After expending almost all of their energy in the second set, the Cougars would not be able to keep up with Saint Ambrose in the third set.
With the score at 7-4, the Bees would go on a massive 14-3 run to take a commanding 21-7 set lead. The teams would trade points for the rest of the game, with the Bees eventually winning 25-11 and sweeping the game 3-0.
With the win and loss, the Cougars would finish the season with an 8-15 record and a conference record of 4-6.
John Romando
Senior Sports Editor
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