EMU's volleyball men had the edge on national power Rutgers-Newark early Saturday in Harrisonburg.  But the Scarlet Raiders took over for the third and fourth sets to hand the Royals a 3-1 loss.

The men fall to 7-6 as their four-match winning streak is snapped.  They are also 2-2 in the Continental Volleyball Conference.  The Scarlet Raiders improve to 11-1 and 3-1.

The first set was tight from the start, with neither team leading by more than two points early.  EMU got the biggest edge by rattling off a 4-0 run for a 21-18 lead.  The men still led 23-21 before Rutgers-Newark landed three straight kills to skip in front, 24-23.  The Royals tied it up with a kill of their own, but the Scarlet Raiders added back-to-back points to sneak out with a 26-24 decision.

Eastern Mennonite had a hot start to the second, opening up an 11-6 lead on two straight blocks from RJ Ocampo (Virginia Beach, Va./First Colonial) and Travis Abele (Mechanicsville, Va./Lee-Davis).  The men kept rolling, leading by as many as seven until a kill from Dan Lutz (Greencastle, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim) closed a 25-20 win to even the match at 1-1.

All the momentum the Royals had disappeared quickly in the third when Rutgers-Newark scored the first five points.  The men tried to come back, but could get no closer than four in a 25-19 loss.

The Scarlet Raiders were in complete control by the fourth, using a four-point and six-point run to vault ahead 10-2.  The deficit continued to grow to a 25-12 final.

Eastern Mennonite had a total of 12 blocks, their second-highest total of the season.  But they also had no service aces for just the second time all year.

Scott Brigham (Montpelier, Va./Patrick Henry) and Abele each landed 11 kills.  Lutz was a force out of the middle, dropping 10 kills on just 15 swings.  Defensively he also had six blocks.  Ocampo also had six blocks, while Abele got his hands on five.

Setter Christian Taylor (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) led all players with 47 assists.  Micah Buller (Richmond, Va./Douglas Freeman) had a match high nine digs.

Jack Fredricks led Rutgers-Newark with 13 kills, five blocks and seven digs.

The Royals have a long lay-off until their next match.  They host nationally-ranked CVC opponent Stevenson on Wednesday, Feb. 24.  The start time has been slid back to 7:00pm.

Coach Dominick Porter said serve receive was the key to the contest: