ST. DAVIDS, PA – The Wilkes University men's volleyball team dropped its Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) midweek game in straight sets to host Eastern University on Wednesday night. The Eagles took the sets 25-16, 25-20, 25-21.

With the road loss Wilkes dropped to 9-15 overall and to 3-9 in conference action. Eastern evened the season series with Wilkes and improved to 7-10 overall and 3-10 in the MAC. The Colonels beat the Eagles 3-1 at the Marts Center back on February 28th.

Eastern jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the first set but Wilkes closed the gap to 9-8 with a 5-1 run. A Brian Vu (Wantagh, NY/MacArthur) kill and then an ace by JD Kirby (Eastport, NY/Eastport-South Manor) allowed the Colonels to tie the score at 10-10. The Eagles went on a key 6-0 run to grab an 18-11 lead and were able to finish off the Colonels in the first set at 25-16.

The Eagles again grabbed an early lead at 5-2 in the second set. The Colonels were able to flip that with their own 5-2 run to even the score at 7-7. Eastern then gained a three-point lead at 11-8. Jones Mensah (Philadelphia, PA/Central) put away a kill to pull the Colonels back within one point at 18-17 but the Eagles scored seven of the next 10 points to take set two by a 25-20 score.

Wilkes was unable to get a hot start to the third set as Eastern held a 16-9 lead. The lead for the home team went to nine points at 22-13 before Wilkes made a run. The Colonels scored eight of the next nine points to cut the lead to 23-21 but Eastern was able to hold off the rally and win 25-21 to complete the sweep.

Kirby directed the Wilkes offense with a career-high 23 assists. Andrew Potter (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth) led the way with seven kills while Mensah finished with six kills and tied his career-high with six blocks while setting a new career-high with five digs. Ethan Speicher (Midlothian, VA/Cosby) also set a career-high with 10 digs on the night.

Darren Lopez recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs to lead Eastern to victory.

The Colonels will close out its 2019 season with two final MAC matches on Saturday in Chester, Pa. Wilkes will square off with Alvernia University at 2:00 p.m. and then face the hosts Widener University at 4:00 p.m.