St. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Volleyball (3-1) hit .373 as a team and took advantage of some overly aggressive serving to earn a decisive three-set home win over the visiting Wilkes University Colonels (1-5).
Kaodi Wokocha recorded a team-high 11 kills to lead the Eagles.
Playing in front of a home crowd for the first time this season, the Eastern attack was on full display in running out to a 25-17 win in the first set. The team was successful on 15-of-18 sideout chances and hit a resounding .684. The Eagles led 11-8 when the Colonels closed the gap to a single point with two service points from James Brust. Wokocha stopped the run with a kill and the Eagles then used strong serving to pull away.
Max Bagileo had a pair of aces in a three-point run, and Wokocha served the Eagles to the doorstep of a first-set win with another three-point run. The Colonels scored their third point on serve in the match to close the gap to 23-16, before the teams traded sideouts to the end. Symyr Byrd, who finished the match with 10 kills, converted all four of his attacks for kills and pushed the visitors out of system with aggressive serving.
The two teams traded points and short runs all the way to 16-16 in the seconds set. A two-point run with Byrd at the line and another two-point run with
Josh Hrabosky serving gave the Eagles a 23-19 lead. The teams traded serving errors, before the Colonels got three good serves from Jacob Haller to pull within a point before Byrd finished the set at 25-23 with a thunderous kill. Hrabosky had six of his 13 assists in the second set.
Eastern hit .368 in the second set and had three kills from Byrd, Wokocha, and
Colby Arvesen. Even with Wilkes committing eight service errors, the Eagles were less efficient in serve-receive and only scored points on six of the fifteen serves the Colonels put in play. Jackson Shafer pounded out eight of his match-high 16 kills in the second. He only took 10 swings.
Ronan Landis had eight of his 18 assists in the third set, but both offenses struggled to terminate points in the final frame. Eastern had a 22-19 lead late, but Haller again came on to serve, and the Eagles struggled to convert their sideout chances. He pushed the guests into the lead with a four-point run, but his fifth serve sailed long and Byrd went back to serve with the score tied at 23. After a hitting error on an out-of-system ball, Wokocha ended the match after an extended rally with his 11th kill of the night.
The Eagles finished with four aces and eight service errors while the Colonels had six aces and 18 errors.
Max Bushong posted six digs, and
Josiah Cash had five kills, three blocks, and an ace.
The Eagles are back in action this weekend with matches against Lynchburg and Randolph-Macon at Randolph-Macon.
