ROUND ROCK, Texas - What a way to go out!

In the final game at the club level for the program, the Concordia University Irvine men's lacrosse team won the 2023 MCLA D1 National Championship by beating Virginia Tech 17-10.

Concordia became the first school to win both a MCLA D2 and MCLA D1 National Championship.  Six years ago, Concordia won the 2017 MCLA D2 Championship before moving up to the top tier of club competition the following season.

CUI impressively won four games in a span of just five days. This included wins on back-to-back nights over No. 10 seed Northeastern and No. 2 seed Georgia Tech (who beat CUI last year in the first round of the MCLA bracket).  

Then on Thursday, CUI defeated No. 3 seed Liberty in the semifinals, avenging an earlier overtime loss. In that contest, Chad McFadden set a new MCLA record with 10 goals in a playoff game in an epic 25-10 throttling of the Flames. The 25 goals scored were also the most by any MCLA D1 team in the tournament's history!

Continuing the theme all week, the final stop for the Golden Eagles Revenge Tour included a thrashing of the top-seeded Hokies as they dealt some payback for an earlier road loss.

As a No. 7 seed, the Golden Eagles are now the lowest seed to ever win the MCLA D1 Championship.

First Team All-Conference face-off specialist Cade Poe was a maestro once again in the X, dominating and earning possession after possession for the Golden Eagles.  He won more than 80 percent of his opportunities, going 25-for-31 on draws.

A big momentum swing came in the second quarter, as CUI finished the contest on a 15-5 run from that point forward.  This after falling behind 5-2 early on and getting shutout in the opening period.

Eric Obispo scored a pair of first-half goals to keep CUI close.  Tyler Collins also bounced one in to pull CUI within 5-4.

Then in that third quarter, Chad McFadden scored twice while Yungte Young and Drew Buckley added important tallies to flip the script on the Hokies.

Jeremy Barnes handed out three assists, Nick Beeson scored twice and McFadden finished with a team-high five goals.  Goalie Daniel Yang put the finishing touches on a fantastic week in the cage with 16 saves.

Eventually, CUI finished the tournament with an eye-popping 68 total goals.  That was the second-most ever for any MCLA team in the D1 tournament and bested only by Simon Fraser University that scored 71 in 1999 (per MCLA).

Both MCLA Championship games were moved up from Saturday to Friday to make sure to avoid the incoming rain storms that were heading into the Texas area over the course of the weekend.  There was real concern the games would not be played unless moved up to Friday.

Thankfully for the Golden Eagles - they got their game in and they played fantastic in the final three periods.

Concordia men's lacrosse was approved earlier this year to move up to the NCAA level and join the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) as an associate member.  Along with STUNT at Concordia, those two sports officially will be recognized as NCAA DII sanctioned sports and will begin competition at that level in the 2023-24 school year.

CLICK HERE to read more about CUI MLAX Moving Up To NCAA Level

CLICK HERE for the full CUI men's lacrosse schedule