Box Score After starting the NECVA Metro slate 5-0, Eastern Mennonite's men's volleyball team had a big date Saturday night, playing at No. 8 Philadelphia Biblical in Langhorne, Pa. Riding a four-match winning streak, the Royals won the first set before falling in four.
The men started strong in the road contest, turning an early deficit into a 13-9 lead. The Crimson Eagles tied the score at 17-17, but EMU never gave up the advantage and pushed out for a 25-22 win.
The Royals struggled to get good swings at the net in game two and took a quick 25-14 loss to even the score.
EMU regrouped for the third game and the two teams traded leads. PBU scored four straight to break off a 17-17 tie and snuck out with a 25-22 win.
The Royals had an early lead in the fourth game but Philadelphia Biblical took over and had leads of 15-11 and 23-17. The men would not go down quietly, however, scoring the next five points to get back within one after a big double block by John Grove (Glen Allen, Va./Deep Run) and Greg Knight (Chesapeake, Va./Hickory).
But the Crimson Eagles ended the match with two straight points, claiming the 25-22 win.
Eastern Mennonite showed great defensive prowess at the net, collecting a total of 12.0 blocks in the contest compared to just 4.5 for PBU. Frankie Coto (Miami, Fl./Southwest Miami) and Chris Moise (Hollywood, Fl./South Broward) each had six block assists. Grove finished with three assists and one solo stuff.
Moise had 10 kills. Nolan Prock (Virginia Beach, Va./Frank W. Cox) added 10 kills and a team high 13 digs. Coto added six kills with no errors.
Kendall Garber (Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Mennonite) had 10 digs and John Barry (Aaron Bridge, Oh./Worthington Kilbourne) had 32 set assists.
NECVA Player of the Week Justin Brubaker led the Crimson Eagles with 28 kills.
The loss drops EMU to 6-5 overall and 5-1 in the Metro Division. Philadelphia Biblical is 6-2 overall and at 2-0 is the last remaining undefeated team in the Metro. The Royals host D-II Mount Olive this Wednesday in Yoder Arena before traveling to Beverly, Mass., next weekend for the Endicott Invitational.