PROVO, Utah – The Concordia Men's Volleyball team made history on Thursday night, coming up with their biggest win in program history. The Eagles traveled to Utah to take on No. 2 BYU in front of the nation's leader in attendance, where Concordia came out with the upset by coming back from down 2-0 to win 19-25, 16-25, 25-22, 25-21, 16-14.

This was a match of many firsts: Concordia's first set win over BYU, Concordia's first overall win over BYU, BYU's first loss in conference this season and Concordia's first win over a top five team in NCAA Division I-II.

There were many Eagle contributors to this victory as all players came up big when they needed to. Setter Chandler Gibb made wise decisions to orchestrate the offense to a .328 hitting percentage and tallying himself 54 assists. Raymond Barsemian had 18 kills to lead Concordia while hitting at a .438 clip. Jonathan Predney was right behind with 17 kills and three aces and Darcy Taig put down 14 kills of his own and dug seven attacks. Hunter Howell had a match-high seven blocks, teaming up with Barsemian who had five.

Concordia's game plan going into tonight's match was to play scrappy defense and get ahead early. They did exactly that. The Eagles got out to a 7-3 run after Taig collected a kill, Howell teamed up with Barsemian for a block, then followed up with Howell-Gibb block, while Predney served an ace into the back corner. BYU would push themselves back into the set after a 4-0 run to take the lead at 13-12. The Cougars scored five of six points to put themselves ahead 23-18, to then take the next two for the first set.

BYU would do what Concordia did to them in the first, by getting ahead early in the second 11-4. Taig would score four out of the Eagle's next five points from all sides of the net to put CUI within five, 16-11. The Cougars exterminated every opportunity they could get, but their own errors kept Concordia in the set. Perched at set point 24-14, Barsemian split the block with a kill and Taig tooled the blockers from the right side to keep their fight alive, ultimately for BYU to swing for the set and score.

With their backs against the wall, Concordia had to play consistently in order to extend the match and avoid being swept. The senior Predney came alive, finding success for nine of Concordia's points in the entire set. He sided-out for the Eagles with a swing from the right side, to bring him back to serve where he collected two kills from the back row and had an ace to bring CUI up 9-5. A 3-0 run put Concordia up by four and Taig delivered a booming kill off a BYU backrow defender into the crowd to put the Eagles up 17-13. Back-to-back kills for the Cougars brought them within one, but CUI was able to maintain the lead and take the set with consecutive kills on the right side from Predney and Taig.

After taking their first ever set from BYU, Concordia had an early 4-3 in the fourth set. A swing from Predney down the line found the arm of a BYU defender for a point and Falduti followed that with a block to tie the set 10-10. The Eagles sparked a mid-set 5-1 run to go up by three at 16-13. Two kills by Barsemian and a Cougar service error put BYU into a timeout with the Eagles ahead 23-20. BYU would then side-out, but Barsemian did as well, tooling the Cougar block and serving an ace in the gap of the BYU passers to send the match to five.

In just their third fifth set match on the season, Concordia got out to an early 3-1 lead after a Predney kill out of the backrow and a Barsemian ace. BYU would respond with a 5-0 run to get ahead 6-3. CUI had an error leading into the side switch at 8-5, but they bounced back with a from Falduti and Predney going back to collect an ace as his serve clipped the net and dropped. Taig did what he did well, which was tooling the block for a kill and Howell and Gibb went up for a block to tie the crucial set at 10-10. Howell executed a slide play with a swing that sent the ball to the floor and Gibb then teamed up with Falduti for a stuff to take a late 13-12 lead. The next set from Gibb would then go to Predney that would fall in front of the Cougar block to earn CUI match point, 14-12. BYU sided-out and Concordia head coach Shawn Patchell would call a timeout to regroup and hope to ice the server. That plan was a success as BYU had a service error and gave the Eagles another match point. Predney served in and the Eagles block slowed down the Cougar attack perfectly for Predney to dig it right to targer and have Gibb reward him for it with a set which he put away to clinch the upset.

With this win, Concordia improves to 13-13 on the season and 4-6 in the MPSF. BYU will fall to 18-5 and 8-1 and have their 13-match win streak snapped.

Up Next: Concordia will stay on the road where they will face Stanford on March 31^st at 5 PM. The Eagles defeated the Cardinal in February with CUI coming out with their first ever sweep over Stanford.

SEEDING IMPLICATIONS: With this week being the second-to-last week of conference play, only the top three teams have been guaranteed the hosts for the quarterfinal matches of the MPSF Tournament (that all seven teams will compete in). The final hosting spot and No. 4 seed is a race between the four teams with Concordia having a one-match lead over Grand Canyon and one-and-a-half-match lead over USC and Stanford. The top seed will get a bye in the quarterfinals and host both the semifinals and finals, so, with Concordia's victory over BYU, the Cougars now have only a one-match lead over UCLA and two over Pepperdine.