IRVINE, Calif. – CUI men's volleyball pushed No. 7 BYU to the test as they forced their final series match to five sets. After the Cougars took an early 2-0 lead the Golden Eagles jumped right back to win the next two forcing a fifth set. The fifth set went in favor of BYU and ultimately led to them winning the match with scores 25-21, 25-15, 18-25, 20-25, and 15-8.
 
Cruse Ae'a wore the libero jersey and scooped up eight digs while Colin Marks ran the offense and finished the match with 39 assists and three kills. Marks reached a career high of five block assists up at the net.
 
Outside hitters Makua Marumoto and Christian Galoppo had 14 and eight kills respectively while both hitting about .410. Marumoto helped shut down the Cougars offense with four block assists. Marcus Morgan was serving tough as he reached a team high of four aces and had nine kills with six digs.
 
Clement Osahon Jr. and Kasey Clouet were the middles for CUI and had a combined 11 kills and nine block assists. Clouet earned the sole solo block for the Green and Gold.
 
In the third set the Golden Eagles jumped out to a hot start as they had a 14-6 lead over the Cougars and did not allow them to get back into the set. The next set was a battle as BYU had a slight edge with the lead but Makai Lipson came into the game and served up a couple points to take a two point lead. Morgan was up next to serve and an ace and block from Osahon Jr. and Marumoto extended their lead 23-17 and was able to close out the set to forth a fifth.
 
The Cougars came out with an early 5-0 lead and the Golden Eagles had a hard time coming back from behind early on. CUI went on to score eight points in the fifth but BYU only allowed them to earn two consecutive points twice.
 
The Golden Eagles will host two non-conference games next week starting with UC Santa Barbara on Thursday Feb. 20 and UC San Diego Saturday Feb. 22 with a 7 p.m. start time.
 
Click here to see the full CUI men's volleyball schedule.