IRVINE, Calif – Concordia (9-9, 3-3 MPSF) had a second opportunity on Thursday night to upset a top ten team after previously falling to No. 10 Ball State on Wednesday, this time against No. 6 Loyola-Chicago (15-4, 6-1 MIVA). The Eagles prevailed, defeating the Ramblers in a tight four set match by a score of 26-24, 25-23, 17-25, 25-23.
 
This was the first-ever meeting between both teams and now Concordia takes the 1-0 lead in the series. With this win, it snaps Loyola's five-match winning streak and breaks Concordia's three match-losing skid.
 
Raymond Barsemian took a bulk of the swings for Concordia, where the 6-6 hitter had to face a tall Rambler front line and was successful, collecting 18 kills and was one dig shy of a double-double. Jonathan Predney followed behind with 10 kills and had six digs. Hunter Howell patrolled the net, leading the Eagles with five blocks (one solo), and had eight kills with no errors and hit .471. For the 12^th time this season, the conference dig leader Jacob Weiser notched double-digit digs as he had a team-high 13 digs.
 
The Eagles got going early with Barsemian and Darcy Taig collecting kills and Howell and Taig sending back a Ramblers attack to take a 4-2 lead. Teams traded the lead early until Concordia sprung a 9-2 run off of points by Barsemian, Howell and Predney to go ahead 17-12. A Loyola attack error gave Concordia set point at 24-22, but the Ramblers responded with back-to-back kills to tie the set. Barsemian put away his fourth kill of the set to receive another set point and Loyola hit long for Concordia to take the 1-0 lead in the match.
 
Concordia held a slight lead in the second set, going on a 4-1 run to go ahead 7-5. Predney then had two kills to force a Loyola timeout at 14-11. A small 3-1 run for the Ramblers brought them within one at 19-18, then forcing Concordia into a timeout. Both teams terminated right away as they headed to the finish line, while the Eagles maintained the lead the entire time. Gibb set up Barsemian to give Concordia set point at 24-21, but a Rambler kill, and block brought them within one and in contention of extending the set. Head coach Shawn Patchell called his second and final timeout which then lead to a Loyola service error and put the Eagles up 2-0 over the No. 6 team in the nation.
 
Momentum switched towards the Ramblers, with them going ahead 3-1 in the third set. Howell put down a kill and Barsemian and Taylor Falduti teamed up for a block to the set up at 12-12. A 6-2 run for Loyola put them ahead 14-10 before Concordia responded with a 3-0 run. Falduti collected a kill off the tape to bring the Eagles within four at 21-17, however, the Ramblers stormed away with four straight points to take the set and look to push the match to five.
 
The strong play for the Ramblers continued, starting out 4-0 in the fourth set. Barsemian benefited the Eagles with three straight points, then Concordia went on a 4-1 run to get a 7-6 lead. Not long after that, CUI went on a 5-2 run after four more Barsemian kills fueled the Eagles offense. Loyola then had five of the next six points to take the lead at 17-16. A dig by Addison Enriques gave Chandler Gibb an opportunity to push the ball to the back corner for a kill to tie the set up at 18-18. Concordia would then tie the set up again at 21-21, before Barsemian and Gibb took swings for kills to get ahead 23-21. Predney had a kill to set up match point, but Loyola swung off the high hands of the block to fight off one match point. On serve receive, the Eagles sided out with a setter dump from Gibb to seal the upset for Concordia.
 
Next Up: Concordia hosts one more non-conference match this week on Saturday night at 7 PM, where Fort Wayne comes into CU Arena for the first time.