The Eastern Mennonite women's volleyball team hosted a tri-match on Saturday, and despite some nail-biting play, the Lady Royals finished the day 0-2.

Emory & Henry 3, EMU 0
The women opened the tri-match with an Old Dominion Athletic Conference contest against Emory & Henry.  EMU had a slow start and never fully recovered, falling by scores of 25-12, 25-17 and 25-21.

Amber Loftin (Amherst, VA/Amherst County) had seven kills to top the team.  Lynae Fry (Pettisville, OH/Pettisville), Rachel Kennel (Parkesburg, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) and Jillien Puster (Mechanicsville, VA/Middlesex) each had four kills.  Mattie Lehman (New Paris, IN/Bethany Christian) had 22 set assists.

Kennel led from the service line with three aces.  Lehman, Katie Miller (San Antonio, TX/Brandeis) and Julyanna Anderson (Front Royal, VA/Skyline) each had eight digs.

Southern Virginia 3, EMU 2
The Knights came into the match just 30 minutes removed from a tough loss to Emory & Henry, and the Lady Royals took full advantage of that and jumped to a quick 6-1 lead in game one.  The women led by as many as nine en route to a 25-20 win.

Southern Virginia surged to a 2-1 lead with big runs late in games two and three to claim 25-17 and 25-22 wins.

The Knights led by as many as 17-11 in game four before Eastern Mennonite rattled off eight straight points to skip into the lead.  The run continued until a Loftin service ace closed a 14-3 streak to clinch a 25-20 win.

Game five was as wild as they come.  Each team had small surges early on before the Lady Royals rode their momentum to a 13-10 edge.  SVU tied it at 13-13, but a kill from Sara Ritchie (Harrisonburg, VA/Turner Ashby) gave EMU match point at 14-13.  The Knights fought off a total of three match points before scoring three in a row to steal a 19-17 match-winner.

The women had three attackers finish with double digits in kills, led by Loftin's 16.  Kennel put down 11 and Ritchie had 10.  Lehman had 43 set assists as the women hit .172 as a team.

Karla Martin (Stuarts Draft, VA/Grace Christian) had three service aces and Loftin had a pair.  Defensively, Loftin led the way again with 14 digs.  Miller had 11 while Lehman and Jessica Goertzen (Goessel, KS/Goessel) each had 10.

The losses drop EMU to 2-8 overall.  The Lady Royals host another contest on Tuesday, taking on ODAC preseason favorite Randolph-Macon at 6:30pm.

Click here to see a video postgame interview with Coach Jeff Tyson.