Despite not getting an upset win at No. 7 Stevenson Wednesday night, EMU's volleyball men took another step in the direction of a bigger goal – a first-ever berth in the four-team CVC Tournament.

The Royals closed the regular season with the 3-1 loss and sit at 12-12 overall and 5-7 in the Continental Volleyball Conference. They are currently fourth in the league standings. But taking one set from the Mustangs may prove to be a key.

Fifth-place Juniata is 4-6 in league play, with two home matches remaining to be played this weekend: Friday against No. 5 Rutgers-Newark and Saturday against Cairn.

If seeding holds out, Juniata would split the two matches and finish tied with EMU at 5-7. Since the two split their head-to-head contests, with each earning 3-1 decisions, the tie-breaker would come down to the teams' set records in CVC contests. Essentially Juniata would need to take two sets from Rutgers-Newark (i.e. lose in five sets) and then sweep Cairn just to keep in a tie with the Royals. (If the tie-breakers continue to the next step of point differential between EMU and JC, the Eagles would win.)

That means a lot of eyes will be on Juniata's Memorial Gym Friday night at 7:00pm, when JC hosts Rutgers-Newark.

Eastern Mennonite's men fell in a quick 4-0 hole in the opener against Stevenson and eventually lost 25-18.

But set two was tight from start to finish, with neither team holding a lead of more than two points. The Royals broke off a 19-19 tie with kills from Tim Callahan (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) and Travis Abele (Mechanicsville, Va./Lee-Davis), and held onto that slim margin. Callahan put down the final kill for a 25-23 win.

The Mustangs used a 9-2 run in the third to build a cushion and win 25-17. EMU had a two-point lead early in the fourth, but hit a lull midway through allowing Stevenson to grab a 25-22 clincher.

Setter Christian Taylor (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) fueled a balanced attack to the tune of 44 assists. Callahan had 12 kills and a .476 attack percentage. Abele added 11 and Scott Brigham (Montpelier, Va./Patrick Henry) put down 10.

Defensively, RJ Ocampo (Virginia Beach, Va./First Colonial) had a hand in four blocks while Abele picked up eight digs.

Landon Shorts led the Mustangs with 18 kills. SU had 11 blocks as a team, compared to five for the Royals.

Stevenson finishes 11-1 in the CVC play and clinched the top seed. That also means the Mustangs will host the postseason tournament in Owings Mills, Md., on April 8 and 9, and will play either EMU or Juniata in the semifinals.