Men’s volleyball remains undefeated with 3-0 win over Eastern Mennonite

HARRISONBURG, Va. – Juniata College men's volleyball hit .247 for the match and sided-out at 78 percent to make short work of Eastern Mennonite University in a 3-0 win over the Royals, Friday night at EMU's Yoder Arena. 

Set scores for Juniata were 25-11, 25-18, and 25-21. Juniata remained undefeated with its fifth-consecutive win – the first 5-0 start to a season in program history.

Freshman outside hitter Ross Madden (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) paced the Juniata attack eight kills, but also logged nine attack errors on his 24 swings to finish with a negative hitting percentage. Madden had a hand in four blocks, and finished the night with a team-high 10.0 points.

Senior outside Chris Vrooman (Baden, Pa./Ambridge Area) tallied seven kills on his 10 attacks, while junior middle Ben Wolff (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) finished with six terminations on nine attacks. Junior Matt Schmidt (Catonsville, Md./Mount St. Joseph) logged five kills from the right antenna, with freshman opposite Alex McColgin (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) putting down two kills. 

Setter John Almquist (York, Pa./Central York) tallied 17 assists with a pair of aces, while Rob Strauss (Penn Hills, Pa./Penn Hills) had nine assists. Mike Kraft (York, Pa./Eastern York) sprawled for eight digs, leading an Eagle squad that tallied 30 digs to Eastern Mennonite's 20. 

White Eastern Mennonite (0-1) showed steady improvement in the score against Juniata as the match unfolded, they never really developed any offensive rhythm against the taller Eagles. The Royals hit .000 for the match with 19 kills and 19 errors on their 73 total attacks.  EMU had just three kills in the first set, and sided-out at 37 percent. 

The third set was the only one that became contested, as back-to-back Juniata errors and a kill by Eastern Mennonite's Frankie Coto allowed the Royals to pull to within one of the Eagles at 21-20. A service error by EMU's Chris Moise stretched Juniata's lead to 22-20, and Coto came back with a kill and a service error to move the score to 23-21. 

After an Eastern Mennonite timeout, a Schmidt kill put Juniata on match point, and sophomore middle John Prout (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) finished off the Royals with one of his three kills on the night. 

The Royals' Moise finished with a team-high six kills, while Coto tallied five kills and two errors on 12 attacks. Eastern Mennonite did out-block Juniata, 6.5 to 5.0, led by Coto's five total blocks.

Juniata completes its six-match season opening road trip on Saturday evening when it travels to Fairfax, Va., to take on former EIVA Tait rival George Mason. Match start time is 7:00 p.m.