IRVINE, Calif. - The Golden Eagles took on the Eagles from Concordia University Irvine tonight in their season opener, a non-conference match-up against the 2013 NAIA National Champions.  Concordia has successfully made the transition from a NAIA program to a NCAA Division II program.

The Golden Eagles got off to a slow start, losing the first set 11 to 25.  Some might say it was jet lag, or perhaps nerves, as the University of Charleston is still a very young team with only two juniors and 17 freshman and sophomores.  Coach Crane, however, has a different interpretation of what went wrong.  "Men's volleyball has a weird season that is broken up over first and second semester, with Christmas Break in between.  Because of this we only had a few days of practice before we left for our matches in California, so the chemistry we were able to create first semester was interrupted and it is simply going to take a few matches before we can get it back".

Just looking at the stats, it looks like the Golden Eagles played pretty well.  UC was able to earn more kills, more assists and more blocks than Concordia.  Unfortunately, they also had 45 errors, while Concordia was able to limit their errors to 23.

There were several very bright spots in tonight's loss.  Freshman middle Eugene Stuart had nine kills on 17 attempts with only two hitting errors, hitting an incredible .412 on the evening.  Several other freshmen contributed and look to have a very bright future at UC.  Byron Hurd, Brandon Greenway and Jacob Horwedel all saw their first action and played very well.

"We played pretty well for the most part, but we shot ourselves in the foot by making way to many unforced errors.  Most of this can be put solely on my shoulders, as I have always been very aggressive in my serving strategy.  So we have a lot of guys who really get after it with their jump serves and we just didn't have it tonight.  That being said, I will take an aggressive mistake, over playing it safe any day of the week", said Coach Crane after the game.

The Golden Eagles are back in action Wednesday at 3 pm against California State University Northridge.  While the Eagles lost in straight sets tonight, 11-25, 23-25 and 22-25 they will look to correct some of their mistakes Wednesday against the Matadors.