ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – Elizabethtown College men's volleyball dropped its first Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) match of the season, falling to Randolph-Macon, 3-1, Friday night.
 
With the loss, the Blue Jays fall to 6-4 overall and 0-1 in the CVC, while the Yellow Jackets improve to 3-7 on the year and 1-0 in the league.
 
Senior Nick Baxter finished with a team-high 17 kills and 10 digs for his second double-double of the year. Freshman Blake Hildebrand tallied 10 kills and classmate Dan Barckholtz dished out 35 assists. Junior Joey Nelson (12) and freshman Steven Swain (12) joined Baxter with double digit digs.
 
Kolby Gibson registered a match-high 19 kills with 12 digs for Randolph-Macon, while James Manning passed out 44 assists.

ELIZABETHTOWN 1, RANDOLPH-MACON 3 (25-21, 16-25, 22-25, 10-25)

• SET ONE: Down two early in the first set, the Blue Jays rattled off seven straight points capped off by an ace from Baxter, moving ahead 11-6 and forcing a Yellow Jackets' timeout.  Randolph-Macon moved within one at 12-11 before Elizabethtown responded again with four straight points to push its advantage to six (18-12). After the Yellow Jackets closed the gap to two (22-20), the Blue Jays wrapped up the first with a 3-1 run, scoring the 25-21 win.
• SET TWO: Midway through the second set, the two teams sat deadlocked at 13. Randolph-Macon broke the tie in a big way, going on a 10-2 run, capped off by a kill from Gibson to go up 23-15. Elizabethtown managed to get one point back, but the visitors shut the door on the second, 25-16.
• SET THREE: After the Yellow Jackets jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the third, the Blue Jays responded, with a 3-0 run to cut the deficit to one (7-6). Randolph-Macon began to creep away in the set, pushing it lead to five (16-11) and forcing a timeout by the home team. After the time out, Elizabethtown once again crept back into the match, cutting the Yellow Jackets advantage to two (20-18) after a kill from freshman Tony Camillo. The Blue Jays continued to charge, closing with one at 21-20. The comeback, however, would stop there, as Randolph-Macon closed out the third with a 4-2 run for the 25-22 win.
• SET FOUR: Holding a three point lead (10-7), the Yellow Jackets opened up its advantage with a 5-1 run. Elizabethtown answered with a 6-2 rally to move back within three (17-14), capped off by a kill from Baxter. Randolph-Macon took back the momentum, pushing its lead back to six (21-15) after a quick 4-1 run. The Blue Jays could not recover from that final push, as the Yellow Jackets closed out the 3-1 victory, 25-20.

 

• NEXT MATCH
  Elizabethtown remains at home for its second consecutive CVC match tomorrow, Feb. 8, against Marymount. Opening serve is set for 1 p.m.