Eagles Take Tournament, Pillon Wins MVP
Cammie Lewis
Box Score Riverside, Calif. - Following its two wins on the first day of the Cal Baptist Invitational, the Concordia Men's Volleyball team finished the tournament strong with a 3-2 (21-25, 25-23, 25-17, 20-25,15-9) win against the Cal Baptist Lancers on Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Eagles claimed the title of tournament champions and were awarded with two players being named to the All-Tournament team.
Joseph Pillon was named tournament MVP after putting up a total of 30 kills,18 digs, four block assists and one service ace in the tournament. Pillon stepped up for the Eagles in this tournament, having three of his best matches of the season.
Jonathan Predney was also named to the All-Tournament team because of his dominate performances in all three games. His stat line for the tournament was 47 kills, 22 digs, five block assists and two service aces.
In the first set versus Cal Baptist the Eagles started off sluggish, going down 5-10 early on. They battled back with a run of their own, cutting the lead to one at 15-14. But the Lancers took control again on a kill from Luis Palos to push the lead to 19-16, and eventually went on to win the set 25-21.
The Eagles turned it around in the second and worked their way 14-9 lead on a kill by
Ryan Anselmo. Cal Baptist would not go away, and eventually took their first lead of the set at 18-17. After that point, Concordia got a much-needed spark from outside hitter
Hunter Howell. Howell put down three kills and gave his team a 24-22 lead. One more kill from
Andrew Hammer gave CUI the win in the second set.
The momentum would stay with Eagles as they jumped out to an early 10-4 lead in the third. With the help of five kills from middle blocker
Taylor Falduti, CUI went on to win the set comfortably by a score of 25-17.
Cal Baptist had their backs against the wall but were able to force a fifth set with a 25-20 win in the fourth.
Both teams wanted the win in the fifth and found themselves locked up at nine apiece late in the set. A Lancer error and a kill from Predney pushed the Eagles to an 11-9 lead, forcing a timeout from Cal Baptist. The timeout had no effect on the Eagles, as they kept on rolling to take the set 15-9, and win the match 3-2.
Concordia extends their win streak to four and now sits with a record of 4-3. The Lancers drop to 1-2 on the season.
The Eagles return home to host Benedictine University on Wednesday, Jan. 11th at 7:00 PM. Live coverage will be available at cuieagles.com.
