ST. DAVIDS, Pa. - Eastern Men's Volleyball rallied from a one-set deficit against Neumann on Friday night to claim its 14th win of the season, 3-1. With the victory, the Eagles (13-9) improved to 8-0 all-time against the Knights (8-9) in their history. The Eagles hit .333 and .379 in the final two sets, and held the Knights to a hitting percentage of just .018 for the match.
The first set on Friday was eerily similar Eastern's final set against Misericordia on Wednesday. After the Eagles jumped out to an early 4-2 lead, Neumann responded with three straight points to take a 5-4 lead. From there moment on, the two teams traded points. The set featured 17 ties and eight lead changes. With the set tied at 25, Neumann was able to secure a 27-25 victory on a pair of Eastern attack errors.
The second set started the same way, as both teams traded points en route to a 14-12 lead. After that, the Eagles put together a six-point run, which included kills from
Connor Tucholski and
Josiah Cash. Tucholski was second on the team with nine kills. Later, with the Eagles up 22-16, a pair of
Max Bagileo kills, sandwiched between a
Kadin Kolstad service ace, gave the Eagles a 25-19 win. Bagileo finished with a team-high three kills in the set and eight total terminations for the match.
Sophomore
Symir Byrd led the Eastern offense with five of the Eagles' 15 kills in the third set. Byrd finished the match with eight kills. His first termination of the set put the Eagles ahead 2-0, and a pair of Tucholski kills, together with a Byrd service ace, put the Eagles ahead 5-3. The Eagles then went on a 7-1 run, with kills from Byrd, Cash, and
Kaodi Wokocha, to go ahead 12-5. Wokocha had another strong performance for the Eagles, leading the way with 12 kills in the win. The Eagles never trailed by six points the rest of the way, cruising to a 25-16 win. Wokocha and Tucholski each finished with three kills in the set, while Cash added two.
After the Knights scored the first point of the fourth set, the Eagles answered with a 5-1 run. A kill and service ace from
Colby Arvesen, along with terminations from Cash and Wokocha, gave the Eagles a lead they would not relinquish. The Knights were able to cut the Eastern to one at 15-14 and 20-19, but the Eagles always had an answer. With a 15-14 lead, the Eagles rattled off four straight points, with two more kills from Bagileo, to go up 19-14. After the Knights battled back again to make it 20-19, the Eagles outscored Neumann 5-1 to close out the match. Arvesen, Tucholski, Wokocha, and Cash each finished with kills in Eastern's final run.
Ronan Landis and
Josh Hrabosky led a balanced Eastern attack, combining for 42 assists. Byrd paced the Eastern defense with 11 digs, while Wokocha added nine and
Max Bushong finished with eight.
Eastern will finish out the rest of the season against MAC opponents. The Eagles will begin the home stretch this coming Wednesday against Hood College at The NEST. First serve is set for 7:00 pm.
