IRVINE, Calif. - Less than a week after upending No. 7 UCLA for the first time in program history, the Concordia University Irvine men's volleyball team had its sights set on knocking off the No. 2 team in the land.

BYU entered CU Arena with a 6-2 record and had been recently been holding the No. 1 ranking in the NCAA D1/D2 AVCA Poll.

Concordia was pumped to be back home and opened the scoring with a kill from Jordan Hoppe to the first point of the match.  Moments later, Jesper Schut went on a brief serving spree with an ace followed by a Raymond Barsemian kill to put CUI up 5-4.  An even battle in the opening set saw seven ties in the early going. But BYU pulled away thanks to six kills from Davide Gardini and five smashes from Gabi Garcia Fernandez to go ahead 25-20.

In the second set, Owen Chun and Jonathan Carlson each provided three kills to give CUI a boost on offense. Carlson was busy on defense as well, notching nine receptions and three digs in that second stanza. Schut landed a pair of kills as well and Erik Boisvert helped the cause when he went for a dig and it ended up bouncing over the net and landing in a free space for an unorthodox kill.  But despite those highlights, BYU found a way to escaped 25-19 and move ahead 2-0.

Concordia racked up six aces in the match with four different Eagles landing at least one serve.  Hoppe even pulled off a rare back-to-back-to-back sequence with three straight aces in the third set to give CUI a 10-8 advantage. 

"We were really good from the service line and we were really good on serve receiving," said CUI head coach Shawn Patchell.

CLICK HERE to see VIDEO of one of Jordan Hoppe's Aces vs. No. 2 BYU

After BYU called timeout, the Green and Gold were positioned to extend the contest, but the Cougars regrouped. BYU ultimately won in three sets by a count of 25-20, 25-19, 25-19.

Brock Henderson compiled 12 assists and McLain Mott handed out 11 helpers for CUI.

"The score may not show it but Owen came off the bench and Brock came off the bench and played extremely well," added Patchell. "So we're optimistic and being positive after playing this match against a very good team."

The Eagles return to action this Saturday, March 6 at 6 p.m. when they visit USC for their first match against the Trojans. These two teams will battle three times over the course of the next week.

CUI will be back home against USC on Thursday, March 11 and visit USC a second time on Saturday, March 13.  The Eagles also recently added two makeup games against Grand Canyon University in April.

CLICK HERE for the updated CUI men's volleyball schedule

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