The EMU volleyball men had a disappointing start to their final CVC East Weekend, dropping a 3-2 match to host Cairn.  The loss eliminates the Royals from contention for a bid to the CVC Conference Tournament, which pits the top three teams from each division in a six-team bracket.

Eastern Mennonite plays two more matches tomorrow in Langhorne, PA, and needs a win against either Juniata or Thiel to secure their first winning season since 2008.

The Royals started out on the right foot, leading most of game one and closing out a 25-21 win on back-to-back service aces from John Grove (Glen Allen, VA/Deep Run).  But Cairn's attack erupted to take the next two games, 25-16 and 25-21.

EMU had a small lead much of game four and finished on a 5-1 run to win, 25-18, forcing the deciding game five.  The Royals led by two points early, but the Highlanders tied the score at 6-6, and then scored five unanswered to grasp momentum and roll to a 15-9 final.

The men hit .220 as a team, but CU was a touch better at .257.  Freshman Jesse Reist (Lancaster, PA/JP McCaskey East) led all players with 14 kills and had two service aces.  Grove was good for 12 kills, four blocks and a pair of aces.  Greg Knight (Chesapeake, VA/Hickory) added 11 kills and five blocks.  Kyle Storc (Westerville, OH/Bishop Watterson) had four blocks.

Chris Moise (Hollywood, FL/South Broward) had a match high with 16 digs, while libero Travis Riesen (Hillsboro, KS/Hillsboro) had 10.  John Barry (Columbus, OH/Worthington Kilbourne) had 51 set assists.

EMU's men take on No. 8 Juniata tomorrow at 10:00am, then close the season with Thiel at 4:00pm.