MALIBU, Calif. – The CUI men's volleyball secured its first MPSF tournament victory since 2018 while playing up north on the campus of Pepperdine University.

Playing in the first round on Tuesday, CUI came into the tournament seeded No. 8 against a familiar foe in No. 9 seed Vanguard. After the Lions won the first set, the Golden Eagles bounced back to win the next three sets. The final scores were 16-25, 25-16, 27-25, and 25-22.
 
Ties Cornelissen and Makua Marumoto helped lead the way for CUI as they both reached double digit in kills. Cornelissen reached a season high of 20 kills while hitting an impressive .341 and dug up eight. Senior Marumoto finished with 14 kills and had a hitting percentage of .480 with seven digs.
 
Connor Dell was on the right side and had eight kills and notched a career high of 11 digs from the back row. Kasey Clouet contributed with six kills out of the middle and had one of the solo blocks from CUI. Nathan Habermas was the other middle who had a solo block.
 
Cruse Ae'a ran the back row in the libero jersey and had another double digit game with 13 digs and three assists. Colin Marks dished out an impressive 44 assists in the four sets and also had 13 digs.
 
The Golden Eagles moved on to the second round as they will take on Grand Canyon, Wednesday, Apr. 23 with a 5 p.m. start time.
 
Click here to see the MPSF tournament central site.
 
Click here to see the full CUI men's volleyball schedule.