Eagles Fall to Tritons in 5
Cammie Lewis
Box Score IRVINE, Calif. - There was a battle at CU Arena on Saturday night, as the Concordia Men's Volleyball team took on the UC San Diego Tritons. After 5 sets, the Eagles fell to the Tritons by a score of 3-2 (19-25, 25-13, 21-25, 25-21, 15-11), dropping them to a record of 6-6 on the season. The Tritons improved to 1-5 with the win.
In the first, the Eagles used six kills from
Ryan Anselmo and five from
Jonathan Predney to take down the Tritons. As a team, they hit .353 in the set and held UCSD to just .129. Setter
Chandler Gibb got off to a good start, putting up 15 assists for the Eagles.
The Tritons turned the tables on Concordia in the second, hitting .348 and holding CUI to -.120 in the set. Concordia started the set off slow and had to call timeout after conceding an early 6-1 lead to UCSD. Predney answered with a kill to stop the bleeding, but the Eagles just couldn't make up the ground and lost the set 25-13.
After an underwhelming second set, the Eagles got back on track in the third, defeating the Tritons 25-21. Four Eagles combined for 13 kills on 25 attempts in the set. The balanced attack helped Concordia improve their hitting percentage to .280 and take the lead 2-1 in the match.
The battle turned into a block party in the fourth, with both teams combining for 14 block assists in the set. It was started by block assists from
Alec Krilis and
Chandler Gibb that cut the Triton lead to one at 5-4.
Hunter Howell and
Andrew Hammer came together later in the set to log a block assist each, which tied the score at 10. UCSD countered with a 5-1 lead and went on to win the set 25-21.
In the deciding fifth set, Concordia jumped out to a 5-1 lead after a couple of blocks from Predney and
Alec Krilis. The Tritons weren't done yet, as they fought back to tie the game at seven apiece. The Tritons took control of the game after an Eagle error and a Tanner Syftestad kill. CUI was never able to catch up and lost the fifth set 15-11.
Alec Krilis led the Eagles in blocks with two solos and eight assists, while
Chandler Gibb finished the night with a season-high 46 assists.
Jonathan Predney (15),
Ryan Anselmo (13), and
Hunter Howell (11) were the three Eagles that reached double digits in kills
The Eagles set their sight on their next home match against Hope International University on Jan. 25
th at 7:00 PM. Live coverage can be found here: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/cui/portal.htm?eventId=338460&streamType=video
