GLENSIDE, Pa. -- Nick Baxter recorded 13 kills in a pair of matches Saturday for the Elizabethtown College men's volleyball. The Blue Jays fell 3-0 to Messiah in their first game of the day before dropping another, 3-0, to nationally-ranked No. 13 Arcadia.
Messiah 3, Elizabethtown 0
Elizabethtown (5-13) kept it close with Messiah (9-6) through most of the first set until the Falcons were able to pull away late. Ahead by three, the Falcons saw the Blue Jays rally with three straight points to get within 18-17 after
Tim Zieber set up Baxter for the kill. A Baxter kill started it off, followed by an ace from the junior before his second kill in three points, both set up by Zieber.
Messiah took the next four to put the score at 22-17 and from there the Jays couldn't catch up. The Falcons took the first set 25-19.
Messiah got out to a 13-4 lead in the second set and didn't let E-town get closer than seven points the rest of the set. They took a 2-0 lead after their 25-13 second set victory.
Steven Schreffler's ace in the third set had the Jays ahead 10-9.
Ethan Maurer recorded an ace a few servers later as Elizabethtown got back in front again and being down a point. A 5-0 spurt by the Falcons put them up 21-15 and they'd take four of the next six to close out the match with E-town.
#13 Arcadia 3, Elizabethtown 0
Elizabethtown held an early lead over Arcadia (18-4) and were tied 8-8 with their nationally-ranked foes. Maurer and Baxter had back-to-back kills to knot up the score in the first set. Nine straight and 13 of the next 15 points belonged to the Knights, who went up 21-10 and didn't allow E-town back into the set.
The Blue Jays were down 15-6, but a timeout helped squash Arcadia's momentum. Out of the timeout, Elizabethtown went on a 7-1 run to get back into the game as they cut the deficit from nine down to three.
Derek Yenser's pass to Nelson ended in a kill for the sophomore to make it 16-13 in the second set. Unfortunately, for EC, they ran out of time and the Knights went up 2-0 with a 25-19 victory in the second.
Elizabethtown hung around with Arcadia in the third and were only down 13-9 after consecutive kills by Zieber and Baxter, who assisted on one another's points. The Knights began to pull away, but a block at the net by
Joey Nelson and
Mark Hall in the third set helped the Jays after AU had taken the previous three points from EC. The Knights showed their might as they completed their sweep over E-town with a 25-19 third-set win.
Baxter added 26 kills to his season total from Saturday's pair of matches. Zieber totaled 42 assists in the two games. Schreffler and Maurer tied for a team-high with three blocks against Arcadia.
The men's volleyball team will host Trine on Wednesday, March 6, at 7 p.m.
