READING, Pa. -- The Elizabethtown College men's volleyball team had leads in each of the three sets in Thursday night's non-conference matchup at Alvernia. A lead late in the first set slipped away and early leads in the second and third were overcome by the Golden Wolves, who swept the Blue Jays 3-0. Nick Baxter had a team-high 14 kills and Tim Zieber provided 27 assists on the night.

Elizabethtown (3-5) got out to a 4-2 lead on a pair kills by Baxter and Ethan Maurer, though Alvernia (2-4) was right there. The two squads battled the entire set, which featured 11 ties.

Baxter had back-to-back kills for E-town late in the first set to give the Blue Jays a 21-18 lead and four points away from taking a 1-0 lead in the match. The Golden Wolves responded with six straight points to take the lead back, 23-21.

EC didn't give up and had set point, but Alvernia was able to avoid the first-set loss with a kill from Victor de Avila to tie it at 24-24. The Golden Wolves would hold off Elizabethtown for a 27-25 first-set victory.

Looking to even things out, the Jays came out flying in the second. A 7-1 run to start the set forced Alvernia into a timeout. Still, Elizabethtown remained in front as it went to 9-3, but slowly, the hosts would get themselves back into the set. Then, like the first set, E-town and Alvernia spent the mid portion of the set going back and forth.

Zieber set Maurer up for another kill that got E-town back to 18-18, but the Golden Wolves finished off the Blue Jays with a 7-2 run to end the second set and took a 2-0 lead.

For the third consecutive set, Elizabethtown got out in front to start, but quicker than the previous two, Alvernia grabbed the lead and didn't relinquish it as they ran away with the third set, 25-14.

Joey Nelson and Nick Spangler each had 11 digs to lead the Blue Jays defensively.

Elizabethtown will host its first home matches in program history this Saturday when they take on No. 7 Kean in a Continental Volleyball Conference contest at 11 a.m. The Blue Jays are also hosting Misericordia as part of a tri-match. E-town and Misericordia will play one another at 3 p.m. Kean and Misericordia will play in between at 1 p.m.