After knocking off one nationally ranked opponent on Saturday, the Royals failed to equal the fete on Sunday.  Despite heading home with a 2-2 overall record from the Thiel College AVI Invitational, the volleyball men proved they could play with the best teams in the nation.

Nazareth 3, EMU 0
The men opened their final day of play at the invite against No. 5 Nazareth.  The Golden Flyers, also the 2011 National Champions, had already won their first three matches at the invite, and they made it four in a row with a sweep of EMU.

Game scores were 25-18, 25-17 and 25-11.

Kendall Garber (Lancaster, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) and John Grove (Glen Allen, VA/Deep Run) co-led Eastern Mennonite with six kills apiece.  Garber also had a team high five digs.  John Barry (Columbus, OH/Worthington Kilbourne) had 19 assists.

After a dominant defensive showing at the net in Saturday's matches, the Royals had just one triple block against Nazareth.

Elmira 3, EMU 2
The Soaring Eagles were receiving votes in this week's AVCA poll, but were just outside of the top 15.  Eastern Mennonite went back-and-forth with Elmira, but came up on the short end.

Elmira won the first set 25-16, but the Royals came back with some good serving to win set two, 25-18.  The trend continued, as the teams split three and four, 25-14 to Elmira and 25-19 to EMU.

The Royals started with a slight edge in the decisive fifth set.  But the Soaring Eagles tacked in a couple of late points to sneak out a 15-13 closer.

Chris Moise (Hollywood, FL/South Broward) led a balanced attack for the men with 14 kills.  Greg Knight (Chesapeake, VA/Hickory) had nine kills and three service aces.  Garber and Grove each added eight kills while Barry put down seven of his own from the setter's spot.  He also had 35 assists.

Kyle Storc (Westerville, OH/Bishop Watterson) had two solo blocks and two block assists.  Nolan Prock (Virginia Beach, VA/Frank W. Cox) led the team with 12 digs.  Barry had nine digs and Moise added seven.

Barry was named to the All-Thiel College AVI Invitational Team following play.  EMU's junior setter racked up 120 assists over the weekend, averaging 8.57 per game.  In the 3-0 sweep of No. 10 Medaille on Saturday, Barry averaging 12.3 assists per game.  He also had 16 kills of his own over the four matches, making no attack errors on 23 attempts for a .696 attack percentage.

Eastern Mennonite, 3-4 on the season, now returns to Yoder Arena, where the Royals will host their next five matches.  Those five are also the only home matches of the season.

EMU hosts a tri-match on Saturday, Feb. 11, against Pfeiffer and Philadelphia Biblical University.  The men take on Pfeiffer at 10:00am and PBU at 7:00pm.  The two other teams play each other early in the afternoon, with the EMU women's basketball team also playing a home game at 4:00pm.