Given the chance to fight into the CVC Tournament, EMU's volleyball men came out flat Tuesday night, getting swept by Marymount University in Arlington.  The Royals were hoping to forge a three-way tie with MU and Thiel for the final two spots in the league tourney, but instead left themselves with a tall task to get into the four-team bracket.

Eastern Mennonite (13-8, 3-7 CVC) plays the top two teams in the CVC standings this weekend, hosting Rutgers-Newark on Friday before traveling to Juniata on Saturday.  The men now need to win at least one match, and possibly both, to get in.

The Royals gave up the first two points of the night to Marymount and never led.  The Saints struck a 4-0 run early to build a little cushion which they never let go of in a 25-15 decision.

Coach Dominick Porter changed things up in the second set, inserting leading hitter Scott Brigham (Montpelier, Va./Patrick Henry) into the setter's role, and the men forged a 7-6 edge.  But MU scored seven unanswered to take over, finally scoring the final four points to win again, 25-15.

EMU used a short 3-0 spurt early in set three to work a 12-9 advantage.  The Saints later had a 4-0 run, but the men scored the next three to keep their lead at 20-18.  The teams battled evenly from there, with a kill from Micah Buller (Richmond, Va./Douglas Freeman) giving the Royals set point at 24-23.  A service error locked it back up at 24-24 and the teams traded points all the way to 27-27.  The Saints got back-to-back kills there, however, stealing a 29-27 clincher.

Despite 16 service errors, Marymount had their way at the net, hitting .316.  The Royals only hit above .000 in the second set and finished at .086 for the match.

Buller played libero in the first set before moving to a hitter's spot, and charted six kills with four digs.  Tim Callahan (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) also had six kills and four digs.  Brigham finished with 17 set assists and six digs.  Kyle Storc (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) had four kills and two blocks, including one solo, while fellow middle Dan Lutz (Greencastle, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim) made four blocks.

EMU hosts Rutgers-Newark Friday night at 7:00pm in the final home match of the year.