A Narrow loss for the Eagles in High Intensity Match with St. Andrews

David Finney | photo by G-Rox Photography - Greg Spell

Waleska, GA - The regular season is quickly coming to an end for Eagles Men's Volleyball as they get ready for post-season action. The Eagles were in action on Thursday evening with conference opponent, St. Andrews, who was coming in with the #2 spot in the Mid-South Conference. The two met earlier in the schedule in North Carolina which ended up being three very close and highly competitive sets that went in favor of the Knights. Reinhardt was looking to reverse that outcome this time around.

The first set started off with the Eagles coming out on fire. Matthew Corrales and Chase Cross were leading the way for the Eagles nailing down kills to get the early lead. Reinhardt was able to get as many as five points up on the Knights showing their dominance on their home floor. Corrales had the Kill that put them up 11-6 early on, but the Eagles knew that St. Andrews would not just lay down and let a win getaway from them. This first set was going to be a fight to the end.   The score would tighten up as the set went on with St. Andrews bringing the score within two a few times, however, they could not catch the Eagles and Reinhardt went on to win set one, 25-23.

In the second, the Eagles would get a good lead after staying close through the first half. At the midway point of the set, the Eagles got up 12 to 8 against the Knights when Chase Cross threw down a hammer kill. Unfortunately, things would change at this point and St. Andrews worked their way back into the set to tie the game at 13 all. They eventually would take the lead and get up as many as five against the Eagles. A few service errors from St. Andrews and another kill by Cross would get the Eagles back to within three, 23-20 but that would be as close as Reinhardt would get. The final of set two would by 25-21 to St. Andrews and everything was tied up 1-1.

The third and fourth sets were almost identical where the sets would be close all the way through with several ties and lead changes for both teams. Corrales, Cross, John Hynes, and Troy Sly were not backing down at all from the Knights and battled toe-to-toe with them from start to finish. Bruno Dewes was setting these three up in all the sets, but they just did not have enough to get them over the top in the final two sets. The third and fourth sets went to St. Andrews 25-21 and 25-23.  It was so close to going in favor of the Eagles, but they just did not have the final push to get them back into the sets and take the lead. It was very competitive, but just not enough to take down the #2 Mid-South team.

The Eagles have one more shot to get a conference win on Saturday when Truett McConnell comes to Waleska for the final game of the regular season. This will be a special afternoon match with all the seniors being honored. Coach Goodhind and Colden have done a great job getting this team to where it is competitive with even the best teams in the NAIA and they are on the verge of being right there with those teams. With a developing program, you will have the ups and downs as you go through the process - but you can expect the team to keep moving forward to where Reinhardt is among those at the top of the NAIA.