EMU's volleyball women played well Wednesday night at home, but still came up on the short end of a 3-1 decision to Virginia Wesleyan.  The Royals had late leads in three of the four sets, but couldn't find the finishing points in their ODAC opener.

After losing to the Marlins 3-1 in a non-conference meeting a week and a half ago, Eastern Mennonite started quickly by landing the first four points of the night.  VWC eventually had an 11-7 lead, but the Royals came right back to go in front 16-13.  The score was locked up four times before the Marlins broke off the 20-20 tie with five straight to win, 25-20.

EMU was not deterred by the loss in the first set, however, using a few runs to jump ahead in set two.  Becca Hardy (Port Republic, Va./Eastern Mennonite) put down a kill for the biggest lead of the night at 17-9.  The Marlins answered with a 7-0 run to get within one point before the women settled down and held on for a 25-22 win.

In the critical third set, EMU once again started well.  The Royals had had leads of 4-0 and 12-7 before Virginia Wesleyan scored five straight to tie the score.  The women kept their edge, clinging to an 18-16 lead, but the Marlins took over with a 9-2 run to close the game, 25-20.  That seemed to change the flow of the night, as the fourth set was all VWC, 25-9.

The back row played extremely well for the Royals, picking up 90 digs for a whopping average of 22.5 digs per set.  Libero Katie Miller (San Antonio, Tex./Brandeis) helped keep the women in the game with 29 digs, her second highest total of the year.  Mattie Lehman (New Paris, Ind./Bethany Christian) had a career best 18 digs, while Alena Yoder (Elkhart, Ind./Bethany Christian) had 15 and Jasmine Johnson (Staunton, Va./Robert E. Lee) added 14.  Johnson also had 28 set assists.

Hardy paced the offense with 10 kills.  Sara Ritchie (Harrisonburg, Va./Turner Ashby) had eight.  Ritchie and Regan Cook (Staunton, Va./Robert E. Lee) each had two blocks.

The loss drops Eastern Mennonite to 5-9 overall and 0-1 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.  The women have two ODAC road games this weekend, playing at Washington and Lee Friday night at 6:30pm followed by Shenandoah Saturday at 11:00am.

Coach Jeff Tyson gives his thoughts on the loss to Virginia Wesleyan: