WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - On the road at King's College on Thursday night, Eastern Men's Volleyball earned its first MAC victory of the season in a three-set sweep of the Monarchs. Max Bagileo recorded a season-high 10 kills in the match. Connor Tucholski finished with eight, and both Symir Byrd and Kaodi Wokocha collected seven terminations in the win. As a team, the Eagles hit .354, which included a .400 hitting percentage in the final set. 

Ronan Landis and Josh Hrabosky led an efficient Eastern offense with 20 and 18 assists, respectively. Defensively, Byrd led the Eagles with 10 digs. 

The Eagles finished with 12 kills on 28 swings in the opening set as five different players recorded at least one termination. Eastern recorded a side-out percentage of 60 percent (14-of-23), and hit .321. The two teams traded points early, before the Eagles built a 5-3 lead on a pair of kills from Byrd and a service ace from Colby Arvesen. The Eagles increased their advantage to 9-5 on two kills from Bagileo, another from Josiah Cash, and a service ace from Byrd. King's answered with four straight points to tie the match at 9-9. 

The teams traded mini-runs in the middle of the set, which culminated in a 16-15 Monarch's advantage. The Eagles took control with a five-point surge. Bagileo recorded two more kills, and three King's errors put the Eagles ahead 20-16. The Monarchs battled back to make it 23-22, but a kill and service ace from Wokocha secured a first set win for Eastern. 

The Eagles hit .345 in the second set. They sided out at a 73 percent clip (14-of-19) and recorded 14 more kills. Eastern scored the first four points of the set and never trailed. Tucholski finished with four kills, which included the first two of the set, while Byrd recorded three. Bagileo, Cash, and Wokocha all finshed with two. 

Bagileo and Tucholski combined for seven kills in the final set, one in which the Eagles battled back from an early 5-0 deficit. The Eagles answered with three straight points of their own, and eventually tied the set at 9-9. After the Monarchs grabbed the lead back at 10-9, the Eagles rattled off four straight points, which included kills from Byrd and Wokocha, to take a 13-10 lead. A 7-3 run for the Monarchs gave them the lead back at 17-16, but another kill from Tucholski and an attack error for King's put the Eagles back ahead by one. The Eagles never trailed the rest of the way. After the two teams again traded points, two kills from Bagileo and a service ace from Tyler Younger secured Eastern's first conference and 13th victory of the season. 

The Eagles (13-6, 1-1) are back in action at Lancaster Bible this Saturday for a tri-match against the Chargers and Southern Virginia University. The Eagles will begin the day at 11:00 am against LBC.