IRVINE, Calif. - The Concordia men's volleyball team took down the No. 7 seed UCLA in the CU Arena tonight in a five set battle. Not only did they beat a ranked team for the first time this season but they also broke their losing streak against the Bruins, making this the first win over them in school history.

"We picked up where we left off and each day we are grinding in the gym. Our mentality everyday is that we can fight through any road block in our way but we just have to show up and that's what we did tonight," said Jordan Hoppe.

Raymond Barsemian led the Eagles with 11 kills, three aces, and five blocks. Netherlands native, Jesper Schut had a stand out performance with 10 kills while having a hitting percentage of .600 and five blocks. Outside hitters Erik Boisvert went 8-for-13 hitting an impressive .462 while Hoppe had seven kills while tying his own school record of six aces in an individual match of five sets where it was first placed against BYU in 2019. Hoppe also led the Green and Gold with 10 digs. McLain Mott dished out 37 assists along with three digs and one kill. Jonathan Carlson and Owen Chun came off the bench and were a contributing factor for the Eagles with eah collecting five kills and totaled five digs combined, with hitting percentages of .714 and .444.

 "We talk about this stuff all the time and to finally have it happen in our home nest means so much," added starting outside hitter Boisvert.

The first two sets were in favor of the Bruins not letting up and challenged the Eagles to earn every point. UCLA continued their momentum after the first set victory into the second until Jordan Hoppe went on a service run and brought the Eagles within two. CUI continued to battle back until the end, ultimately finishing by a close 21-25 and 20-25 in the first two sets.

Just when things were looking up for th Bruins, Hoppe went back to the service line and two hitting errors from UCLA and two aces from Hoppe gave CUI an early 5-1 lead. The Eagles never let up and ran with the lead, closing out the third set 25-20, forcing the Bruins to another set.

"The whole team was picking it up energy wise and the first set we won and we wanted to move on and play on and I could feel it off the court also," said middle blocker Jesper Schut.

The fourth set was a battle as UCLA took an early lead over CUI. Barsemian went to the end line and served a couple aces bringing the lead a little tighter. Carlson came in off the bench and made an immediate impact with two kills along with Chun to bring the Eagles within two. Similar to the third set, Hoppe goes to the end line again and serves some heaters racking up three aces and forcing the Bruins to give up the lead with the Eagles taking a 23-20 lead. A service and attack error ended the fourth set, forcing a fifth deciding set.

The Green and Gold continued to push through in the fifth, not allowing the Bruins to go on more than a two point run. Barsemian was serving again for the Eagles to where they were able to extend their lead and continue that momentum until the end, finishing the match with an exciting 15-12 win.

"It was the classic Concordia way just grinding it out and sticking with it. Lot of different guys played and came off the bench helped and improved. It's a brotherhood and it's a beautiful thing to be part of," stated head coach Shawn Patchell.

The Eagles go back to Los Angeles for the final game of the series against UCLA on Tues. March 2 at 5 p.m.

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