HARRISONBURG, Va. - The EMU men's volleyball team wrapped up its 2022 home slate Saturday, hosting Elizabethtown in a CVC matchup. 

The Royals were able to pick an opening-set win but the Blue Jays responded with three straight to take the match 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-15, 25-19). EMU falls to 2-13, 1-5 CVC while Elizabethtown improves to 12-9, 2-4 CVC. 

Highlights

• In what proved to be a very even match, it was no surprise that neither team was able to pull ahead in the opening set. EMU held a slight lead, early on before E-Town responded with a short run to go ahead by two. The teams swapped points until, with EC leading 11-10, EMU went on a 3-0 to take a 13-11 lead. The teams would continue to tie things to 15-all before EMU went on another run, this time 4-0 with a Blue Jay error, a block from Ben Childers and Josh White, a Christopher Webster ace and a Nate McGhee kill to take a 19-15 advantage. The Royals would never trail again as they used another block from Childers and White to pick up the set win. 
• In the second, EMU pulled ahead early with kills from McGhee and Jacob Durren. The teams went back-and-forth with EC eventually pulling ahead 13-8. But EMU responded with a 6-0 run, highlighted by a kill from White, a Webster ace and another kill from McGhee, to take a 14-13 lead. Points were once again swapped until Elizabethtown went on a 9-4 run, forcing an EMU timeout. Out of the break, EMU kept it close with White picking up a kill but the Blue Jays took advantage of a Royals error to take the second set. 
• The Royals couldn't gain momentum in the third, with E-Town jumping out to a 15-6 lead. The Royals cut the deficit to seven with points from McGhee and White but the hole was too deep and they dropped the third set, 25-15, to go down 2-1. 
• The final set was close early as the Royals used a kill from McGhee to trail 10-9. Elizabethtown responded with a 5-0 run and EMU took a timeout to stop their momentum. Out of the TO, the Royals picked up three straight with a Webster ace and a pair of errors to pull within three. But three would be as close as EMU would get as Elizabethtown maintained their lead and ultimately took the set, and the match. 
• McGhee had a big match for EMU, finishing with a match-high 16 kills, hitting .314. White added six while Durren and Webster each had five. Webster also added four aces for EMU. Wyatt Bollinger dished out 28 assists. Defensively, Drew Bennett had 13 digs while Durren and White had three blocks each. 

What's Next

EMU will be back on the road next weekend when they travel to New Jersey for a pair of matchups. They'll kick off their weekend with a CVC match against Kean on Friday with first serve starting at 7 pm. 

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