After Friday’s important win over Thiel, the EMU volleyball men held serve Saturday at the CVC Weekend, taking a win over PBU before falling to No. 4 Juniata. The Royals wrap up their regular season Wednesday night at Stevenson. A win against the Mustangs would assure the men a top three spot in the East Division and berth in the inaugural CVC Tournament.
EMU 3, Philadelphia Biblical 2
The match with the Crimson Eagles was one filled with wild momentum swings.
PBU jumped to a 9-2 lead in game one before the Royals tied the score at 15-15. The men squirted ahead and took a 25-23 win on a kill from John Barry (Columbus, OH/Worthington Kilbourne).
EMU fell behind early in sets two and three, taking identical 25-20 losses.
With their backs against the wall, the Royals responded, blowing open an early lead to a big 25-11 win in game four to force a decisive fifth set.
The men made a couple of comebacks in game five, including three straight blocks to cap a late 4-0 run which put them on top 14-13. PBU scored a point to tie things up, but Eastern Mennonite had the final say with two points for the 16-14 decision.
As a team, the Royals hit .302, landed nine service aces and made 13 team blocks.
Chris Moise (Hollywood, FL/South Broward) led all players with 18 kills along with two aces. Greg Knight (Chesapeake, VA/Hickory) had 13 kills to go with a solo stuff and five assists. He also had four aces. Kendall Garber (Lancaster, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) landed 12 kills.
Barry finished with 48 set assists and two service aces. John Grove (Glen Allen, VA/Deep Run) was a huge presence from the middle of the net with nine kills, two solo blocks and six assists.
Libero Nolan Prock (Virginia Beach, VA/Frank W. Cox) had a match high 18 digs.