ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Volleyball recovered from early malaise and rallied to top the visiting Wilkes University Colonels in four sets.
Darren Lopez and
Foster Lobb each finished with 12 kills, and Lobb led the Eagles with 16 digs. After hitting .004 in a 25-20 loss in the opening set, the Eagles hit .293 the rest of the way to pull away from Wilkes.
The Eagles had nine hitting errors and a pair of service errors in the opening set. With those points given early, the Colonels stormed to a 19-9 lead before the Eagles started to build momentum. Eastern scored 12 of the final 18 points in the opening set and did not allow Wilkes to score a point on serve, but the lead was big enough that they did not have to score on serve. The Colonels took advantage of free balls and rolls to pound out 14 kills and hit .393 in the opening set.
"The team didn't have the best warmup and that carried over to the game," Head Coach
Randy Syracuse said, "a few simple mistakes and a lack of communication gave confidence to Wilkes. They played a really flawless early part of the set. We made a line-up change midgame, and it seemed to help us get on the same page. After a few good plays on our side we closed the gap but in the end the slow start was too much to overcome in that first set."
The second set started at 0-0, and though Wilkes scored the first three points of the set on an attack error and two blocks, the rest of the set belonged to the Eagles. Lopez had four kills on eight swings and the team rushed out to a 15-6 on a stretch where
Gabe Perez served for six points and
Lucas Adam pounded out five points.
Ben Sierer and Lopez combined on a block in the middle of that run.
The Eagles scored a point on serve in five of thier final six rotations in the set.
"Gabe, Foster, and Lucas all put pressure on from the service line allowing us to get on some point runs beyond two points as the match went on." Syracuse continued. "For the first time this year we had more service aces than service errors in a match. We took some extra time in practice to work on serving. We had a lot of service errors in our matches at Messiah. I asked the players to specialize in one particular area and I was glad to see it pay dividends tonight."
In the third set, it was Sierer who put together the big run at the service line. The first year middle served for five points to help the Eagles build a 13-7 lead. The Eagles had only two hitting errors in the set and hit .300 as a team. Perez had two kills and a solo block in the set. Lobb had four kills and five digs to help the Eagles to a 25-13 win.
The Eagles broke open the final set with Lopez at the service line. He served for four points and after an immediate sideout, Sierer served for two more to put Eastern up 13-7.
Bruno Vargas served a pair of points to give the Eagles a 20-15 lead and Adam pounded out two aces in the final five points for the 25-16 win. the Eagles had five aces and only one error in the final set.
"For his terrific serving, " Coach Syracuse announced. "and as well as some solid play in the back row and good positioning on the block
Gabe Perez wins the SVPOD!"
Perez finished the day with six kills, three aces, and a block.
Justin Flor had 33 assists.
The Eagles (2-9) will play two matches against Misericordia (4-9) this Saturday.
