HONOLULU, Hawai'i – The Concordia University Irvine men's volleyball team traveled to face No. 1 Hawai'i in back-to-back nights. The first match-up was close as the Golden Eagles came out fighting but just fell short in four with scores 14-25, 25-22, 15-25, and 23-25.
 
Uriel Batista led the Golden Eagles with 15 kills and freshman Scott Montez put down 13 kills with a .370 hitting percentage throughout the match. Johnny Anselmo had seven kills and six digs while Slater Fuhrman had two kills and digs.
 
Gil Herold was a key contributor once again up at the net with six kills and added a solo block. Maxwell McCullough and Mason Mullins both entered the game and added a few kills and had come up defensively with three blocks.
 
Setter Nathan Biteau put up 40 assists while Makai Lipson also came into the game and had two assists and a dig. Libero Jacob Reilly led the Green and Gold with eight digs alongside Montez who also tallied eight.
 
The second set was a battle as the score toggled between the two teams but a ball handling error gave the edge for CUI with a 23-22 lead. Back-to-back CUI kills from Batista and Anselmo gave them the win. The fourth set was another close one that came down to the wire and Batista put up a solo block to be within one point of the Hawaii to make it 23-24 forcing Hawai'i to take a timeout and came out with a kill that ended the match.
 
The Golden Eagles will play against No. 1 Hawai'i again on Friday, Feb. 17 at 9 p.m. PST. CUI will be back in the CU Arena as they take on UC San Diego on Tuesday Feb. 21 with a slated start time of 7 p.m.

To see the full CUI men's volleyball schedule click HERE.