Fresh off Friday night’s five-set win at Thiel, the Royals stepped out of conference play 16 hours later and earned another full distance win on the road, taking down Penn State-Behrend in Erie, Pennsylvania. Eastern Mennonite’s volleyball men improve to 11-6 with their second straight five-set win.
The Royals coughed up the first three points in the opener and never recovered, 25-17. They used a big 6-0 run midway in the second set to gain momentum to even things up, 25-16.
Neither team led by more than two in the critical set three. PSB led 20-18 but the Royals scored three straight to go ahead 21-20. The Lions scored once to tie it at 21-21, but the men kept rolling, as Dan Lutz (Greencastle, Pa./Greencastle Antrim) capped a key 3-0 spurt with a service ace to make it 24-21. The home team scored twice before an EMU kill closed the door on a 25-23 win.
Eastern Mennonite scored first in the fourth, but the Lions used an 8-0 run to take charge and cruise to a 25-16 win.
The teams traded points early in the deciding set five before the Royals scored four in a row to build a 7-2 cushion. The men kept the lead at four or five points until match point at 14-9. Penn State-Behrend scored three times before a block from Kyle Storc (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) and Marc Lovell (Newport News, Va./Menchville) ended the day, 15-12.
The Royals hit .201 with 11 blocks, their second-highest total of the season.
Scott Brigham (Montpelier, Va./Patrick Henry) turned a match high 68 swings into 27 kills. He added 12 digs. Tim Callahan (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) was good for 11 kills and 11 digs. Zach Guiciardi (Creighton, Pa./Deer Lakes) lofted 51 set assists and Micah Buller (Richmond, Va./Douglas Freeman) picked up 13 digs.
Lutz knocked down seven blocks, including two solo. Lovell finished with six blocks to go with his nine kills.
Eric Theiss led PSB with 12 kills, while Ty Sheehan and Trenton Munk each had 11.
The Royals have another non-conference road game next Tuesday, playing at Bluefield College at 6:30 p.m.