HARRISONBURG, Va. – The Elizabethtown College men's volleyball team opened its weekend slate of matches with a 3-1 victory over Eastern Mennonite in Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) action Friday night.
 
With the win, the Blue Jays improved to 11-8 overall and 2-3 in the CVC, while the Royals fall to 3-5 on the season and 1-2 in the league.
 
Freshman Blake Hildebrand registered a team-high 11 kills and senior Nick Baxter had 10 kills. Freshman Steven Swain hit .333 with eight kills while freshman Dan Barckholtz dished out 28 assists.
 
Sophomore Jacob Durren hit .500 with 11 kills to pace the Eastern Mennonite offense. Junior Andrew Livioco tallied a match-high 12 digs.

ELIZABETHTOWN 3, EASTERN MENNONITE 1 (25-19, 25-16, 21-25, 25-20)

• SET ONE: The Blue Jays wasted little time taking control of the opening set, charging out to a 10-7 advantage. The Royals answered the early deficit with a 5-0 run to take its first lead of the set, 12-10. Elizabethtown punched back thanks to a kill by Baxter and three straight attacker errors by Eastern Mennonite to move back ahead, 14-12. The two teams continued to hang tight, until the Blue Jays opened up a three point cushion (20-17) after a kill by freshman Tony Camillo and then a kill and ace by Hildebrand. Elizabethtown did not let this advantage slip away, scoring five of the final seven points of the first to take a 1-0 lead, 25-19.
• SET TWO: Ted at four, the Blue Jays surged to the front, taking an 11-6 lead. The Royals continue to hang around, sitting within 13-10, but Elizabethtown increased its advantage to five (19-14) after a kill by Camillo. After Eastern Mennonite grabbed one point back, the Blue Jays closed out the second stanza on a 6-1 run for the 25-16 win and the 2-0 lead.
• SET THREE: Eastern Mennonite did not quit in the third set, running out to a 6-2 lead in the third. Elizabethtown climbed back into the match tying things at six. The home team took the momentum right back going on a 7-1 run for the 13-7 advantage. The Blue Jays played catch up the rest of the way, but could not close the gap as the Royals took the third set 25-21, making the overall score 2-1.
• SET FOUR: Down one (12-11) the Blue Jays made sure this match did not go five, rattling off a 6-0 run to move ahead 17-12. Eastern Mennonite closed back within three (19-16), but would not get any closer as Barckholtz and Baxter had back-to-back kills on Elizabethtown's way to closing out the match 3-1 with the 25-20 victory.

 

• NEXT MATCH
  Elizabethtown remains in Virginia to take on Southern Virginia tomorrow, Feb. 29. Opening serve is set for 1 p.m.