READING, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Volleyball dropped a pair of Middle Atlantic Conference matches at Alvernia University on Saturday. The Eagles fell in three tightly contested sets to Messiah College in the first match and fell by similar scores to the host Golden Wolves in the second match.
How It Happened:
The Eagles struggled through the day to execute over the final points in sets. The first set against Messiah (17-9, 8-4 MAC) was a case-in-point. The two teams were tied at 19-19. The Falcons scored six of the final eight points in the set to pull away to a 25-21 win. The Falcons led most of the second set, but the Eagles were within range at 18-16 late. Messiah scored seven of the final nine points to win 25-18. The final set was tied at 15-15 and the Eagles trailed 19-17 before Messiah against scored six of the final eight points for a 25-19 win.
Darren Lopez had a match-high 13 kills and
Cameron Parsons finished with 30 assists. The Eagles hit .192 in the match.
Bruno Vargas had 11 digs.
The story was fairly similar in the second match. The Golden Wolves (10-6, 4-7 MAC) hit .302 in the match. Lopez had 14 kills and hit a very impressive .524.
Anthony Smith added eight kills and Vargas had another 11 digs. Parsons finished with 29 assists and three aces. The Eagles had five aces and only eight service errors in the match.
Coach Syracuse Says
"It was a tale of two teams today. Both teams played in each set of each match. Team one was working hard and playing together. That team was communicating and fighting tooth-and-nail with the other team through the first 18 points of each set. The second team then showed up. That team was sloppy and made simple mistakes at inopportune times. As well as team one played, that other group made it impossible for us to win."
"Darren Lopez had a very solid day. He crushed a lot of balls and he played some really smart shots as well. When team one was playing, Cameron was able to create a lot of good matchups and our offense was fun to watch. Through the day, we struggled stopping the middle attack on both teams. We didn't serve effectively enough to keep the middles out of the game."
"We've been working on improving our communication in practice and in the longer rallies it really benefited us today as we were able to stay through the points."
Up Next:
The Eagles (6-10, 2-10 MAC) will host Wilkes on Wednesday night and will wrap up the programs inaugural season at Stevenson next Saturday.
