Clouet Ties CUI Record With Four Solo Blocks Against No. 2 UCI

IRVINE, Calif. – The Concordia University Irvine men’s volleyball team played against their third ranked opponent No. 2 UC Irvine. The Golden Eagles battled it out with the Anteaters as they went the distance in two of the sets but still ultimately fell short in four sets with scores 26-28, 17-25, 28-26, and 15-25.
 
Kasey Clouet made his presence known on the court defensively as he put up four solo blocks tying the CUI record in a match that three other previous players hold. Clouet also led CUI with two aces that UC Irvine could not return. Clement Osahon Jr. found the empty spots on the court and had nine kills.
 
Christian Galoppo finished the match with 13 kills with Marcus Morgan adding nine. The two players had four digs a-piece from the back row. Ties Cornelissen snatched eight kills while Makua Marumoto came into the game and had three kills with four digs.
 
Cruse Ae’a ran the defense in the back row and was all over the court scooping up eight digs and was dominant at serve receive with some tough serves from the Anteaters. Colin Marks had 37 assists and dig up seven.
 
CUI really pushed UC Irvine right out of the gates and jumped out with a 10-7 lead. The Anteaters slowly made their way back into the set to take a 24-23 but the Green and Gold gave some push back with a kill from Cornelissen. UCI closed out the set earning two consecutive points.
 
UCI had a 23-21 lead in the third set but a couple back-to-back errors from the Anteaters and tough serving from Marumoto gave CUI three points to make it set point. Serving errors from UCI kept Concordia in the match and a kill from Osahon Jr. sealed the set win by a close 28-26.
 
The Golden Eagles will start MPSF conference play next week against BYU on back-to-back nights Thursday Feb. 13 and Friday Feb. 14 with both start times at 7 p.m.
 
Click here to see the full CUI men’s volleyball schedule.