The EMU men's volleyball team had a successful entry into D-III play this season, impressively sweeping a pair of contests Saturday at the Thiel College AVI Invitational in Greenville, PA.  The Royals play two more matches on Sunday.

EMU 3, Medaille 0
Eastern Mennonite opened up with Medaille, which entered as the No. 10 team in the AVCA National Poll and had already won its first three matches at the invite.  The Royals jumped ahead early and took game one by a 25-20 score.  The Mavericks regrouped, but EMU still had the leg up in a pair of tight 27-25 wins to close the match.

John Grove (Glen Allen, VA/Deep Run) was unstoppable out of the middle, hammering a career high 11 kills on just 14 attacks.  His attack percentage of .786 was just shy of the school record of .833.

Chris Moise (Hollywood, FL/South Broward) added 10 kills and Kendall Garber (Lancaster, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) put down nine kills on 18 attempts.  John Barry (Columbus, OH/Worthington Kilbourne) had a great time setting up the offense as he racked up 37 assists in the sweep.

The Royals also dominated the net defensively, with 12.5 blocks.  Kyle Storc (Westerville, OH/Bishop Watterson) had six block assists and one solo stuff.  Greg Knight (Chesapeake, VA/Hickory) added two of each, as well as two service aces.

Libero Nolan Prock (Virginia Beach, VA/Frank W. Cox) picked up 13 digs.

EMU 3, Fontbonne 0
The Royals turned around and took on Fontbonne from the CVC West.  The Griffins proved no match for the men, as EMU ran away with a sweep.  Game scores were: 25-21, 25-15 and 25-16.

Eastern Mennonite hit .462 as a team with just four errors, including .524 in set two and .765 in the final set.

Everyone got involved, led by Grove's seven swats.  George Greene (Highland Springs, VA/Highland Springs) had kills on all six of his attempts.  Garber also had six, while Moise and Knight each landed five.  Barry had 29 assists.

Prock again led in the back row, digging up 10 Fontbonne spikes.  Garber added eight.

The Royals also had six total blocks, led by Storc's five block assists.

Now 3-2 on the year, the Royals will try to extend their three-game winning streak with two more matches Sunday at the Thiel College AVI Invitational.  EMU take on No. 5 Nazareth at 11:00am followed by Elmira at 3:00pm.