Although they had their chances for more, the EMU volleyball men earned a split at a tri-match hosted by Penn State-Altoona on Saturday.  Playing against a pair of Lions, the men lost their opener in four before finding their groove in a five-game win.

Penn State-Altoona 3, EMU 1
The Royals scratched out to a small lead in the opener, going up 14-10.  The Lions regrouped with a run and the teams then went back and forth, rolling past the 25-point mark.  Penn State-Altoona finally got back-to-back kills to seal up a decision, winning 31-29.

The second game was tight until the Lions scored the final five to win 25-21.  EMU started out strong in the third, going ahead 7-3.  PS-Altoona regrouped with a run, but the Royals answered with one of their own to maintain control and sneak away with a 25-23 win.  But the Lions slowly tacked up a lead in the fourth game, ending any thoughts of a comeback with a 25-22 clincher.

EMU struggled against PS-Altoona's block, having just five more kills than attack errors with an attack percentage of .032.  The Lions had 18 blocks.

Tim Callahan (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) led all players with 16 kills although he had a negative attack percentage.  Jesse Reist (Lancaster, Pa./J.P. McCaskey) added nine kills while Justin Spanka (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) had seven in two games.  Zach Guiciardi (Creighton, Pa./Deer Lakes) lofted 31 assists in three games.

Defensively, Micah Buller (Richmond, Va./Douglas Freeman) racked up 21 digs while Callahan also hit double figures at 11.  Kyle Storc (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) had a hand in five blocks.

EMU 3, Penn State-Behrend 2
The second match of the day turned into a back-and-forth classic.  Penn State-Behrend won the opener 25-19, before the Royals methodically rolled to a 25-15 win in the second.  The Lions had a handful of short runs in the swing game, but EMU had more, getting a kill from Spanka to secure a 25-22 decision.

In the fourth game, Penn State-Behrend built an early lead and made it stick with a 25-20 final to force game five.  The Royals built up a 13-10 lead in the final game, but watched as the Lions tied things up at 13-13.  But a service error followed by a block from Storc and Spanka clinched a 15-13 win, sending Eastern Mennonite home with a 3-2 victory.

Callahan again led the hitters, with 15 kills and a .194 attack percentage.  Spanka added 10 kills, while Buller stepped into an attacker's role and had nine kills with 12 digs.  Guiciardi had 37 assists with 12 digs, and Colton Frey (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) added 10 digs.

Storc finished with four blocks.

Now 2-1 on the season, the volleyball men play at Lancaster Bible Tuesday at 6:00pm.  EMU swept the Chargers at home on Tuesday in their season opener.