Photo by Jocelyn Kline

In recent weeks, the Elizabethtown College men’s volleyball team has played against Messiah College, Cairn University, Misericordia University and D’Youville College.

The first game against Messiah was held Tuesday, Jan. 28, and the Blue Jays took a 3-0 loss. Senior Nick Baxter continued to lead Etown with 11 kills. He was followed closely by first-year Blake Hildebrand, who had a total of eight. First-year Dan Brackholtz led with 25 assists.

Thursday, Jan. 30 the Blue Jays went into their first away game against Cairn and took a 3-0 win. First-year Steven Swain was a top player in this game, hitting .571 and coming out with a total of eight kills. Baxter held the top number of kills, again with 10. First-year Cameron Krebs made a team high of five digs. Brackholtz led with 19 assists, followed by sophomore Tim Zieber, who made 17.

Etown split at Misericordia Saturday, Feb. 1. They took a 3-0 loss against Misericordia but swept their other competitor, D’Youville.

Against Misericordia, Swain led the Blue jays with nine kills, while Hildebrand and Baxter both finished with six kills each. Brackholtz (17) and Zieber (9) made a combined 26 assists.

In the first set, the Blue Jays were behind nine points. Once they got on the board, the Blue Jays were off. After a series of three straight points, the Blue Jays took the lead, and it looked like they would take the set until Misericordia came back to take the win. This led to a spiral that gave Misericordia the game.

It was a different story against D’Youville. In the first set, the Jays took 25-9. The second set was closer, with a final score of 27-25 for the Jays. The final set was 25-14. Baxter led with 18 kills again, followed by Swain (7) and Hildebrand (5). Zieber made 20 assists. Hildebrand also lead in digs with a high number of 14.
The Blue Jays will be back home in Thompson Gymnasium for their True Blue game against Randolph-Macon College Friday, Feb. 7 starting at 7 p.m.