The Eastern Mennonite volleyball women opened a key road weekend Saturday, needing a couple of victories against middle-of-the-pack ODAC teams to make a run at a tourney bid.  Despite one great game, day one of the trip ended in a 3-1 loss at Guilford.

The Quakers, who entered with a 2-3 conference record, controlled games one and two by identical 25-16 scores.

In game three, the Lady Royals front line came alive and hit .333 as a team in a big 25-19 win.

But the home team took back the momentum in the fourth game and closed out the match, 25-13.

Amber Loftin (Madison Heights, VA/Amherst) replaced Sara Ritchie (Harrisonburg, VA/Turner Ashby), who missed the match with an injury, and responded with a team high 10 kills.  Loftin also had 10 digs.

Tabitha Bowman (Waynesboro, VA/Stuarts Draft) had six kills, a solo block and two block assists.  Jessica Goertzen (Goessel, KS/Goessel) had four kills and eight set assists.

Mattie Lehman (New Paris, IN/Bethany Christian) had 15 assists and the team's only service ace.  Sophomore Brittany Childress (Gloucester, VA/Christchurch) led all players with 15 digs.

The loss drops EMU to 5-15 overall and 0-7 in the ODAC.  The Lady Royals play tomorrow at Emory & Henry, which also enters the match with a 2-3 mark in conference play.