ST. DAVIDS, Pa. - The visiting Misericordia Cougars hit .444 on Wednesday night, while Eastern Men's Volleyball hit just .086 in a 3-0 loss at The NEST. It was the Eagles' (13-9, 1-2) first match in 10 days following Spring Break.The Cougars (17-8, 3-1) hit a stellar .524 and .519 in the first two sets, 25-16 and 25-13 wins, before grinding out a 25-23 victory in the third set to secure the sweep. The Cougars were successful on 80 percent of their sideout chance (24-of-30) in the opening two sets.

Back-to-back kills from Anthony DePalma and Benjamin Clendening put the Cougars ahead 2-0 to start the match and they built a 6-3 lead on a couple of Eastern errors and a kill from reigning AVCA First-Team All-American Jared Piontkowski. Piontkowski and DePalma led the Cougars with 12 kills apiece. The Eagles battled back to cut the advantage to 7-6, but that was as close as the Eagles got the rest of the way. The Cougars outscored the Eagles 18-10 to eventually claim a 25-16 win.

Josiah Cash gave Eastern their first point of the second set with a kill, and the two teams battled to a 7-7 tie in the early stages. Ronan Landis recorded a service ace, and the Eagles took advantage of several Misericordia errors. The Cougars took control from there, using a 13-2 run to build a 20-10 lead. Colby Arvesen had a pair of kills later in the set, but the Eagles did not draw any closer than eight points.

The Eagles built their biggest lead of the match early in the final set. Three straight errors, followed by a kill from Connor Tucholski, put the Eagles ahead 5-2. From that point, both teams traded points, with neither team leading by more than one until the match's final stages. With the Eagles ahead 22-21, the Cougars rattled off three straight points, including a kill from DePalma. The Eagles got to within one on another hitting error, but a service error on the following point secured the three-set sweep for the Cougars.

Tucholski led the Eagles with six kills, while Kaodi Wokocha added five. Cash and Wokocha recorded a pair of blocks, while Josh Hrabosky led the Eastern setters with eight assists.

Eastern will play its final non-conference match on Friday against Neumann. First serve is set for 7:00 pm.