WILKES-BARRE – Paul Binner (Tunkhannock, PA/Tunkhannock) tied a career-high eight blocks in a game to help him earn the single-season block record in school history while senior Casey Shipman (Hershey, PA/Hershey) had the last kill in the set to help the Wilkes University men's volleyball team win in Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) action over Eastern University 3-1 in Wednesday night action in the Marts Center. Wilkes won the series 25-16, 27-29, 25-21, 25-18.
 
The Colonels would conclude their regular season with a program best 18-10 record, finishing in the conference at 3-6. Eastern would end their year at 10-14, going behind Wilkes with a 2-7 record in the MAC.
 
The first game went in favor of the Colonels as they got out to a 6-1 lead as Noah Taylor (Lumberton, NJ/Rancocas Valley Regional) had two kills during that stretch. The Eagles would chip away with some points in the process, but Wilkes would have multiple three-point runs as Lucas Mages (Buffalo, NY/Iroquois Central) earned two kills while Binner and Jackson Shafer (Milford, PA/Delaware Valley) had a service ace to put the Colonels up 16-8. After a four-point stretch by Wilkes, Eastern would cut away the lead to get within eight points, but a service error would hand the Colonels a 25-16 win as they head into the second set. Binner would break the school record for blocks in a single season at the fifth point of the first set.
 
The second set would see both teams get on the same footing and trade the lead evenly. Eastern took the lead at 9-7, but Wilkes would tie it up with a Binner kill and Taylor block. They would keep the game tied and trade the lead past the 25 point limit, with Eastern having the advantage only to have the Colonels break the two point swing three different times. Eventually, Shafer would have two straight attack errors to give the Eagles a 29-27 victory in the second set and tie the series up 1-1 heading into the third.
 
The third set would see Eastern try and take the series in their favor as they jumped out to a 6-4 lead with two Max Bagileo kills. Wilkes would get ahead 8-7 off a Shafer kill and blocks from Zach Shay (Bethlehem, PA/Freedom) and Jacob Mages (Buffalo, NY/Iroquois Central), but the Eagles would get the game tied up again at 8-8. Both teams would continue to trade the lead with Eastern up 18-17 over Wilkes. The Colonels would go on a 8-3 run that would see Binner and Shay blocks while Taylor and Shafer had two kills to give Wilkes a 25-21 win in the third and be up 2-1 going into the fourth set.
 
After Eastern would get back ahead 6-5, Wilkes would get five straight points as L. Mages earned two kills in that stretch. The Eagles would keep fighting, getting within one point to potentially force a fifth set. The Colonels would have three runs near the end of the game as they had four straight points to go ahead 18-13. After Eastern earned two points in a row, Shafer had two kills back-to-back to keep Wilkes ahead. One more two point swing by Eastern would get them within three, but four points in a row set up the Colonels to finish the game with a win. After surrendering one more point, Shay would set the ball to the end of the net for Shipman to earn his last kill in the Navy and Gold, helping Wilkes take the fourth set 25-18 and earn a 3-1 victory on Senior Night.
 
Shafer led the team with 16 kills on the night as Taylor and Binner followed behind with 13 and 11 kills respectively. L. Mages rounded out the kills with eight. Shay had 42 assists in the game to go along with his team-leading 10 digs. Shipman followed behind with nine digs and his set-winning kill. Binner tied a career-high with eight blocks on the night while Shay followed behind with five blocks. Binner also recorded two service aces in the game, helping him break the single-season record in program history for service aces with 43 on the year.
 
Before the match, Wilkes recognized Shipman tonight as they honored their senior on Senior Night.