The Elizabethtown College Blue Jays men’s volleyball team squared off against the King’s College Monarchs on Tuesday for a non-conference matchup. Etown came into the match with a 4-1 record, taking care of business early against a plethora of non-conference opponents. 

The Blue Jays picked up their only loss of the season against the #15 ranked Baldwin Wallace University in a close game, with Etown forcing five sets. King’s had gone 1-1 to start their season, picking up a win against Cairn University 3-0 and falling to Etown’s Continental Volleyball Conference opponent Kean 3-0. 

The Blue Jays came out of the gates hot, with kills by junior outside hitter Mason Boyer and sophomore outside hitter Braydon Ambruster electrifying the crowd early. Etown and King’s proceeded to trade points between the two sides, with Boyer grabbing a few more kills to keep the Blue Jays in front. Etown was able to spark up a rally in the middle of the set, with sophomore middle hitter Max Sears collecting back to back kills. 

Sophomore setter Patrick Neyer and senior outside hitter Logan Smith added two more kills as Etown expanded their lead to seven points in the first set. After the Monarchs couldn’t put together a strong attack, committing multiple attack errors, Etown was able to capture the first set 25-13 after Ambruster and senior middle hitter Cole Burkhardt came up with a block at the net. 

Etown was able to take control of the second set, taking the first three points off kills by Smith and Burkhardt and a service ace from Neyer. The Blue Jays continued applying pressure onto King’s, with Sears collecting back to back kills for Etown and pushing the lead to four points at the middle of the set. The lead in the set was narrowed to as little as two at a point, however, the Blue Jays gained their composure, securing the team’s next three points off of a kill by Ambruster and a block by Sears and Neyer. Etown was able to secure the second set after Burkhardt collected his third kill of the set, winning 25-18. 

The Blue Jays came out of the three minute break with some firepower, winning seven of the first eight points in the set. The run was started after sophomore outside hitter Arun Gopinath got two kills to give the Blue Jays the initial lead. Smith and Ambruster continued the scoring for Etown, collecting three kills between the two players to give them a six point lead over the Monarchs. The Blue Jays continued to collect points as Gopinath produced a service ace and Smith was able to get two more kills for Etown. The Monarchs attempted to climb back from the deficit, however, kills by Ambruster and a service error by King’s secured Etown’s 25-18 win in the set and won the match 3-0.

Ambruster led the Blue Jays with 13 kills on the evening, followed by Smith with 11 kills and Sears with nine kills. Neyer produced most of the attacking for Etown, collecting 43 of the 45 assists for the Blue Jays. Due to his performance this past week, Neyer had been nominated as the CVC Player of the Week. Junior outside hitter Alan Lisman produced two service aces for Etown, leading the team in the statistic. Senior libero Dustin Hagin led the Blue Jays in digs with 19 on the evening while Ambruster had 10 digs of his own.

The Blue Jays will have their next home match against Hood College and Roanoke College in a tri-match on Feb. 7.