Royals Fall to Mount St. Joseph to Wrap up Road Trip

CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Royals men’s volleyball team wrapped up its brutal start-of-the-season road stretch on Sunday, taking on Mount St. Joseph. 

EMU came away with a season-high kill percentage but the Lions were able to pick up a 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-19) win over the Royals. EMU now stands at 0-5, 0-0 CVC. 

Highlights

• EMU started off strong, using a block from Drew Bennett and Jacob Durren, along with kills from Durren, Ben Childers and Nate McGhee to take an early 4-3 lead. MSJ took the lead on a 4-0 run but the Royals continued to fight back and keep things close to the midway point of the set, trailing just 8-13. The two teams traded points once again, with MSJ pulling ahead 20-12 before an error and a Wyatt Bollinger kill cut the lead to six. The Lions reeled off three straight but EMU answered, forcing back-to-back errors to trail by seven. The Lions ended the set, picking up the final two points and taking set one, 25-16. 
• MSJ started strong in the second set, jumping out to a 10-4 lead. The Royals answered with four straight, using two kills from Tyler Oaks, a Childers kill and a Lion error to pull within two. After Mount St. Joseph picked up another point, making it 11-8, an error and a Durren/Bollinger block pulled EMU within one. Later, the Royals would tie things at 14, 15 and 18 with a kill from Durren and an ace from Oaks and a kill from Bollinger, respectively. The Lions would respond with a 4-0 run to pull ahead 22-18 but the Royals wouldn’t roll over in the set, rallying for three straight points to pull back within one. Each team picked up a point, making it 23-22 MSJ before the Lions picked up two kills for a 25-22 win. 
• The third set was the closet one yet, as neither team was able to pull away. There were 14 ties throughout the set, the latest coming when back-to-back EMU kills tied the match at 18. The Lions responded with four straight points before an attack error pulled EMU back within three, 19-22. That would be as close as EMU would get as MSJ finished things off with the final three points. 
• McGhee paced the Royals with seven kills to go along with eight digs. Durren finished with six kills at a .417 clip, as well as four blocks. Bollinger dished out 20 assists. 

What’s Next

EMU will be at home for the first time in 2022 when they kick off CVC play against Immaculata. First serve at Yoder…