EMU's volleyball men picked up a split on Saturday at a tri-match hosted by Cairn.  The Royals took down the host Highlanders before getting swept by SUNY New Paltz.

EMU 3, Cairn 0
While the contest against Cairn was not a league match, it gave the Royals a good idea of where they would stack up in the CVC.  Eastern Mennonite scored first in game one and kept the edge to a 25-19 win.

Game two was a tight one before the men pulled off a 21-21 tie to grab a 25-23 victory.  Each team had a chance at game point in the third set until EMU scored three straight to close it out, 27-25.

The men hit .219 as a team, but made the biggest difference in blocking, where they had 9.5 total blocks.  Cairn had just 5.0.

John Grove (Glen Allen, VA/Deep Run) had eight kills without any errors and had four block assists.  Joseph Spriggs (Chester, VA/Thomas Dale) had three blocks.  Marc Lovell (Newport News, VA/Menchville) led the team with nine kills while Chris Moise (Hollywood, FL/South Broward) added eight.

John Barry (Columbus, OH/Worthington Kilbourne) had 29 set assists and four block assists.  Moise led in the back row with 10 digs.  Barry had eight digs and Travis Riesen (Hillsboro, KS/Hillsboro) had seven.

No. 7 SUNY New Paltz 3, EMU 0
The nationally-ranked Hawks made quick work of the Royals, who struggled at the net and hit just .055 as a team.  Game scores were 25-17, 25-18 and 25-23.

Grove, Barry and Kyle Storc (Westerville, OH/Bishop Watterson) each had three block assists.  Barry also had 22 set assists and five digs.

Jesse Reist (Lancaster, PA/JP McCaskey East) had a team high seven kills.  Moise had five swats and five digs, while Greg Knight (Chesapeake, VA/Hickory) had five kills in one game of action.

Now 11-5 on the season, the Royals have already tied their win total from each of the past three campaigns.  They have the week to prepare for a CVC East Division Weekend, which they host in Yoder Arena.  All five East Division teams will be in Harrisonburg with matches starting at 2:00pm on Friday and 10:00am on Saturday.  EMU's first match is Friday at 6:00pm against Cairn.