NORTH GREENVILLE -Â
The University of Charleston men's volleyball team traveled to North Greenville University tonight to take on the Crusaders. The Golden Eagles would take the first set 25 to 23. Coach Crane was quoted as saying, "Even though the box score looked close, the coaching staff never felt that we had lost control of the game".   In set one, Ryan Santos led all Eagles with 8 kills on 11 attempts, hitting an unbelievable .667. Santos also contributed 1 ace in the first set. Rajahl Moxey contributed 3 kills on 8 attempts, hitting a very good .375. He also contributed 1 assist, 2 digs and 1 block. Â
In the second set the crusaders edged out the Golden Eagle 25 to 21. According to Coach Crane, "We didn't play great in the second set, but we didn't play horrible either. We simply made some big mistakes at crucial moments in the match". In the second set Rajahl Moxey led all Eagles 6 kills on 9 attempts hitting .555. He also added 1 ace and 2 digs to his totals.
Â
In the third set the University of Charleston never got started. "It was a case of North Greenville not doing anything wrong, and we just couldn't do anything right", said Coach Crane. The bright spot for the Eagles in the third set was outside hitter Ryan Santos who had 5 kills on 5 attempts, hitting a perfect 1.000, as well as contributing 3 digs in the 25 to 14 loss.
Â
Luckily for the Golden Eagles they were able to turn the momentum around in the fourth set. " This set was a complete turnaround from the third set. In the fourth we could do nothing wrong and the Crusaders couldn't buy a break", said Coach Crane. As a team the Golden Eagles had 14 kills on 20 attempts with only 1 error, hitting an outstanding .565 as a team. Conner Brandland totaled 4 kills on 4 attempts in the fourth set to hit a perfect 1.000. Not to be out done, Krzystof Zieba had 1 kill on 1 attempts to also hit a perfect 1.000. Rajahl Moxey added 5 kills on 6 attempts to hit .833 in the fourth.
Â
It was unfortunate that we couldn't take advantage of the momentum we generated in the fourth set, but losing the fifth set the way we did was a bit shocking. It was almost as if we thought that North Greenville was just going to surrender in the fifth, and when they didn't, we were shocked and just couldn't get started. All in all, we played some really good volleyball, and some really bad volleyball. We have a lot to work on next week in practice, and hopefully this teaches us as a team that no team is ever out of the fight, as long as they think they are still in it".Â
Â
As a team the Golden Eagles had 48 kills on 113 attempts with only 16 hitting errors, hitting .283 on the evening. They had 10 aces, 38 digs and 8 total blocks.
The Golden Eagles are back in action next Thursday against Penn State – Altoona, then again on Friday against St. Francis, and yet again on Saturday against New Jersey Institute of Technology. All three of these matches are away, but don't worry, your Golden Eagles will be back at home on February 24th against Alderson Broaddus.
