STANFORD, Calif. – Following No. 14 Concordia's win over No. 2 BYU on Thursday night, the Eagles traveled back to California to take on Stanford in Maples Pavilion. Earlier in the season, Concordia got their first MPSF win over the Cardinal by ways of a sweep. This time, the Cardinal came out victorious, winning in four sets, 24-26, 36-34, 25-19, 25-21.
Concordia had to change up their game plan this week, as the last Stanford team they faced lacked their two all-conference players who were sidelined to injury. Those two players saw action this week and led their team in this victory, along with their upset win against No. 13 Grand Canyon on Thursday.
Darcy Taig led the way for Concordia, collecting a career-high 18 kills, with just one error to hit at a .500 clip. He also had five blocks and an ace to round out his stat line for the night.
Hunter Howell followed behind in the scoring department where he had 12 kills, six blocks and hit .529.
Jonathan Predney had 13 kills and
Chandler Gibb had 52 assists and nine digs.
The Eagles got going early with back-to-back Cardinal errors and a Predney kill to take a 3-0 lead. Stanford would go on a run to come within one before Taig scored and the Cardinal had a hitting error to keep the Eagles ahead 11-8. There were consistent two-point gaps with CUI up, but Stanford managed to tie the set. Concordia earned set point at 24-23 off a service error from the Cardinal, which Stanford fought off. Howell put down a set to retake the lead and the Cardinal hit long to give CUI the 1-0 advantage in the match.
For the second consecutive set, Concordia was up 3-1 to start the set after Howell scored and then teamed up with Barsemian for two stuff blocks. The Cardinal was to get ahead and maintain a lead and go up by as much as three. The Eagles came out of a timeout with a 5-1 run to retake the lead which included a double-block by
Taylor Falduti and Taig on Stanford's most offensive weapon. A Stanford attack hit the floor to earn them set point at 24-22, but a serve long and attack error for the Cardinal sent the set into extra play. Concordia earned one set point at 26-25 after Predney delivered a kill from the backrow. However, Stanford would side-out and get ahead, and the Eagles would fight hard, avoiding the end by stopping nine total set points ultimately to lose 36-34.
Taig and Howell had two blocks to start the third set while Taig also put down two kills. Stanford forced an early timeout from Concordia after storming ahead 9-5. Taig tooled the hands of the blockers to put Falduti back to serve, where he forced an overpass that was put down by Howell and collected an ace to come within one, 12-11. The Cardinal had increased their lead to put them at set point, 24-16. Concordia would not go down without a fight as newly inserted
Parker Maki tooled the block and similar plays from Taig and Howell fought off three set points. A tough serve by Falduti put the Cardinal out of system on serve receive but they were able to end the set with a kill.
Looking to comeback from down 2-1 in the match, Taig and Falduti put down kills while Barsemian had a solo block to have a hot start at 3-0 in set four. Stanford rebounded from their slow start to get ahead, which they maintained until kills from Howell and Taig tied the set at 14-14. Concordia saw themselves down by three on many occasions and hoped to stay alive as long as possible. Gibb called his own number for a kill, down 23-20, and Stanford had an attack error for CUI to fight off one match point. A kill for the Cardinal ended the set and sealed the match.
Concordia falls to 13-14 overall and 4-7 in the MPSF. Stanford improves 6-17 overall and now at 3-7 in the MPSF, which keeps them in contention for the final hosting spot in the conference tournament,
Next Up: Concordia returns home for their final two regular season matches on April 6
th and 7
th where they face UC Santa Cruz and USC. The Eagles will honor their seniors on Friday night against the Banana Slugs and will host High School and Club Night against the Trojans.
