ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Volleyball earned a tough five-set win against the visiting King's College Monarchs to open league play. The Eagles trailed 6-4 in the decisive set before reeling off nine of the next ten points en route to a 15-10 result in the final set.
Foster Lobb had four of his game-high 23 kills in the final set.
How It Happened:
The Monarchs (5-1, 0-1 MAC) won the first and third sets, and Eastern (3-2, 1-0 MAC) won the second and fourth. After
Darren Lopez served the Eagles to a 3-0 lead in the fifth, the Monarchs took advantage of four Eastern errors on the way to a 6-5 lead. King's led 7-6 and looked poised to take an 8-6 lead at the turn, but a missed call led to a replay, and the Eagles took advantage.
Lobb pounded out a kill for a sideout and then
Samuel Christie took advantage of an overpass to give the Eagles an 8-7 lead when the teams switched sides. Christie and
Justin Flor then combined for blocks on back-to-back points for a 10-7 lead. Cobb put in a tough serve and Christie stuffed home another overpass. Lobb then capped the run with an ace.
After getting to match point on a thundering kill from
Darren Lopez, the Eagles missed a pair of chances to end the game before earning their first league win of the year on a serve that drifted long.
The Eagles trailed 24-20 in the opening set but closed the gap to 24-23 with Christie at the service line. The rally, however, fell short as the Monarchs got a kill to win 25-23.
King's built a 10-5 lead in the second before Flor and Lopez served the Eagles into the lead. The duo each delivered a pair of aces in an 8-to-1 run to put the Eagles up 13-11. King's eventually grabbed a 20-17 lead before the Eagles were able to score points on three consecutive servers. While not failing a sideout chance, Eastern picked up two points with Flor at the line, one with Lopez, and two with
Kiriam Yordan serving to win 25-22.
The third set was also tied at 22-22. This time, the Monarchs emerged with the 25-23 win thanks to a pair of kills from Joe Joe Herman and a block.
Cobb had a pair of kills in the final four points of the fourth to help the Eagles to force a fifth set.
Flor finished with 44 assists, four aces, and seven blocks. Christie finished with 10 blocks and four kills. Lopez finished with 17 kills and five aces and Westbrook had 13 kills.
Trey Miller finished with a game-high 16 digs.
Herman and Matt Piontowski watch had 16 kills and Sam Capwell added 14 for the Monarchs. George Beck had 43 assists.
Coach Syracuse Says:
"Against a bigger team we showed big hearts. We never wavered in our resolve to get the win. Justin delivered perfect set after perfect set. He allowed Darren and Foster to explode on attacks that had no chance of being defended."
"Trey had a very solid performance coming up with key passes and digs when needed late in the fourth set and throughout the fifth. We needed some big defensive plays to keep the match going. It was great to get our first five-set win in front of a very noisy home crowd."
"We had several players in the running for the 'SWEATERVEST PLAYER OF THE DAY.' Votes have been cast for Darren Foster and Justin. After the votes are tabulated, the winner will be revealed on our Instagram page."
Up Next:
The Eagles will go to Hoboken, N.J. on Saturday to take on a pair of tough opponents. League newcomer Stevens is ranked third nationally. After playing the Ducks early, the Eagles will play Rutgers-Newark at 1:00. Neither team has lost yet this year.
