ST. DAVIDS, Pa. — Eastern UniversityMen's Volleyball (2-4) beat the incoming weather and the Cairn University Highlanders, but they were unable to secure a home sweep as they lost in four sets to the Elizabethtown Blue Jays. Including 15 kills in the match against Elizabethtown,
Colby Arvesen had a team-high 25 kills
The Eagles hit .435 as a team in a straight-set win over Cairn. Arvesen and Kandi Wokocha each had ten kills and
Trey Broussard and
Connor Tucholski added six kills each.
In the opening frame, the Eagles built a 12-8 lead on service efforts from
Landon Mattiace and
Kadin Kolstad. Wokocha had five kills on seven swings and the Eagles won 25-17.
In the second set, the Highlanders (0-8) had more kills than the Eagles by a 14-11 margin, but the Eagles scored four points with the block and another two on service aces to earn a 25-20 win. Eastern hit .500 as a team on the way to a 25-22 win in the third set. Tucholski had kills on all four of his swings in the set.
Eastern faced a tougher test in the nightcap. The Blue Jays (7-1) also beat Cairn in three but had held some players in reserve.
Logan Smith, Mason Boyer, and Arun Gopinath came into the third match of the day and, with Smithposting 24 kills, combined for 47 kills.
The Blue Jays trailed 7-3 in the opening set before flipping the script with a big service run from Gopinath. They hit .333 as a team to win 25-18.
They built a 22-17 lead in the second, and it looked like they were set to pull away to another comfortable win. The Eagles found tough serving efforts to score points and tied the score at 23 on a block from Mattiace. The teams then traded points all the way through to 27-276 before a Smith ace and a big double-block point gave the guests a 2-0 edge with a 29-27 win. All five Eastern hitters had multiple kills int he set.
Arvesen had seven kills on nine swings to lift the Eagles to a 25-20 win in the fourth. Eastern was not, however, able to carry that momentum through as Smith delivered eight kills and two aces in the fourth to secure a 25-18 win for the guests.
Ronan Landis had 22 assists and Samir Byrd had eight digs. Wokocha had ten kills in each match.
The Eagles are slated to play Ramapo and Drew at Drew next Saturday.
