EMU's volleyball men had a dominating closing to their home season, hitting .452 in a 3-0 thumping of Alvernia University Friday night. The CVC win bumps No. 8 Eastern Mennonite to 19-7 on the season, including 8-2 in the conference.

The Royals are tied with the 2002 and 2006 teams for the second-most wins in program history. The 2007 squad finished 22-11 and is the only EMU team to earn more than 20 wins.

The men end the regular season with five straight road matches, starting with next Tuesday at No. 15 Juniata College. Four of the contests are in the CVC, and the Royals are in good shape in their effort to secure the program's first-ever bid into the four-team CVC Tournament.

Against Alvernia, the Royals had a slow start. Tied at 15-15 in the first set, Coach Ross Madden called a timeout and his men responded. EMU came out of the break on a 5-1 streak, and quickly put away the set, 25-20.

An 8-0 run in the second built a 15-6 margin, as the Royals the set 25-16. Everything went the men's way in the third, a 25-8 clincher.

The team notched their second-highest attack percentage of the year at .452. Setter Christian Taylor (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) racked up 43 assists, his highest three-set total of the season.

Tim Callahan (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) led the balanced attack with 14 kills. R.J. Ocampo (Virginia Beach, Va./First Colonial) racked up a career best 10 kills along with four blocks. Dan Lutz (Greencastle, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim) had eight kills with no errors on 11 swings, a .727 attack percentage. He also led all players with two aces and was on the service line for a handful of large EMU runs in the match. Travis Abele (Mechanicsville, Va./Lee-Davis) added six kills in just two sets.

Josh Elmore (Chester, Va./Matoaca) led the back row with 12 digs.

Ralph Lunati led the Crusaders with 12 kills and six digs.

Coach Ross Madden said his team took off as their passing got better: