IRVINE, Calif. – The Concordia University Irvine men's volleyball team completed the week undefeated with a win over the back-to-back NCAA Division III National Champions from Springfield, Mass. in three sets.
 
Chandler Gibb dished out the Eagles offense for the day, putting up 29 assists and four digs. The main offensive weapons were the trio of pin hitters, Luke Krzmarzick with 10 kills, Jordan Hoppe with eight, and Jonathan Carlson with seven.
 
"I thought we executed the game plan, we kind of started out slow but at around 10-10, we really started to execute what we wanted to do, and you saw that separation and we ended up winning by seven or eight points," said Gibb.
 
Noah Lassandro scored three points early to begin the match. Krzmarzick put down a kill and Hunter Howell and Carlson sent back a Pride attack to gain separation at 14-11. Springfield came back to tie the set at 17-17 but Concordia ran away with the set using an 8-0 run to take the 1-0 match lead.
 
Concordia got out to a 5-3 advantage in the second set after back-to-back Krzmarzick aces and a block. Bailey Mundy checked in with senior Isaiah Kaaa and the pair contributed to a 7-2 run and a 22-15 CUI lead. Carlson earned a kill and Kaaa served an ace to end the set and put the Eagles up 2-0.
 
The Eagles opened up an early 4-2 lead in set three with Krmarzick delivering a kill to make it 10-9 CUI. After a few serves, Lassandro defended the net, picking up three blocks as part of an 8-2 run to put Concordia up 18-13.  Kills from Zachary Meyer and Mundy sealed the match at 25-19 to give Concordia the victory.
 
"We're bouncing back from a slow start, two big away trips that didn't get us down though," added Carlson. "We came back, wanted to play well in front of our home crowd. It was good to get comfortable against a couple of good teams."
 
Concordia's next match will be on Friday, Jan. 25 down the road, as the squad travel to No. 2 UC Irvine at 7 p.m.  The Eagles next home match will be Thursday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. against the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs.

For the full Concordia University Irvine men's volleyball schedule click here.