Eastern Mennonite's volleyball men picked up a solid win Saturday in Harrisonburg, taking down Rutgers-Newark in four games.  The Scarlet Raiders are in the process of switching their program from D-I to D-III.

Game one featured runs on both ends for the Royals, as they started with the first five points and closed on a 9-3 run to win 25-21.

The Scarlet Raiders regrouped in game two and pushed the scoring past the regular 25.  EMU had five different serves for game point before finally closing it out on their sixth try, winning 30-28.

Rutgers-Newark held a small edge in game three at 11-10, before the Royals stumbled.  The visitors took full advantage and closed on a 14-3 run to win 25-13.

Eastern Mennonite used a 4-0 run to grab a 10-7 lead in game four.  The carried the momentum to a 20-11 cushion and cruised out with a 25-18 win.

The men were on top of their game defensive, racking up a total of 13 blocks.  John Barry (Columbus, OH/Worthington Kilbourne) and Joseph Spriggs (Chester, VA/Thomas Dale) each had six block assists, while John Grove (Glen Allen, VA/Deep Run) had five assists and one solo stuff.

Jesse Reist (Lancaster, PA/JP McCaskey East) had a match high 15 kills, followed by Chris Moise (Hollywood, FL/South Broward) with 12 and Greg Knight (Chesapeake, VA/Hickory) at 10.  Grove added eight kills.  Barry finished with 48 set assists, averaging 12.0 per game.

Libero Travis Riesen (Hillsboro, KS/Hillsboro) anchored the back row with a career high 19 digs.

EMU is now 8-3 on the season.  They travel to South Carolina next weekend for three games, starting with a tri-match at Coker on Friday.