LANCASTER, Pa. - In its second tri-match of the season on Saturday, Eastern Men's Volleyball battled valiantly,  but suffered a pair of defeats against Lancaster Bible and No. 9 Southern Virginia. The Eagles held leads in every set but were unable to keep them in a three-set loss to the host Chargers (21-25, 20-25, 23-25) in their first match. Later in the day, the Eagles dropped a four-set decision to the Knights (14-25, 17-25, 25-19, 18-25).

Despite the final results, Justin Flor put together a strong afternoon, finishing the day with 21 total kills, including a team-high 13 against Lancaster Bible on an impressive .305 hitting percentage. Rodney Quarles was second on the Eagles with 11 terminations, six of which came against Southern Virginia. 

In the opener, after the Eagles and Chargers battled to an 8-8 tie in the opening set, Eastern used a 4-1 run, which included a Flor kill and a Max Bagileo service ace, to take a 12-9 lead. However, the Chargers took control, ending the set on a 16-9 surge to grab the one-set advantage. 

Flor recorded five more kills in the second set and helped the Eagles build a 13-11 advantage at the midway point. However, the Chargers responded with a 6-1 run to build a 17-14 lead, before executing kills on seven of their next eight points to go up two-sets-to-none. 

After an early 6-6 tie in the third set, five straight errors from the home team but the Eagles ahead 10-6. Eastern held their lead throughout the majority of the final stanza, eventually building a 22-20 advantage, but the Chargers ended the match on a 6-1 run, securing the three-set sweep. 

"Against LBC, we hung in against a very physical team," Eastern Head Coach Randy Syracuse said. "Justin had some solid swings and blocks."

Southern Virginia (8-1, 3-0 CVC) took control with wins in each of the opening two sets, but the Eagles responded with a six-point win in set three, using a 6-0 run in the early stages to take a 9-3 lead they would not relinquish. Lucas Adams recorded four of his five kills in the set, Quarles recorded three terminations, and Jeremiah Pha added a pair of service aces. 

"We finally broke through in the third set on some terrific serving from Jeremiah, who changed tactics to a more conservative serve that seemed to handcuff the SVU libero and outside hitters attempting to pass the serve," Syracuse said. "After taking leads in several sets beyond 20 points, we finally pushed through to take the third set against a top 10 team."

The Eagles were unable to carry that momentum into the fourth frame as the Knights scored four of the set's first five points and held that advantage for the remainder of the contest. 

Chris Miller orchestrated the offense against Lancaster Bible with 21 assists, while Nick Storz added 15 in the match against Southern Virginia. Trey Miller led the defensive effort, recording 14 total digs. 

"There are two ways to look at this day: execution and effort," Syracuse said. "We continue to strive for improvement in our execution in practice there is no need to work on our effort. Playing without their captain they dug deep and supported each other. Though the matches ended up in two losses, we came away with our heads held high due to our effort."

Eastern will be back in action on Tuesday evening, traveling down the road to Chester to take on MAC foe Widener (3-4, 0-1 MAC). Opening serve is set for 8:00 pm.