Men's Volleyball falls in four to Aquinas

(Rochester Hills, MI) - The Rochester Christian men's volleyball team returned to the Garth Pleasant Arena on Wednesday evening, taking on the Aquinas Saints. The match saw back-and-forth play the entire evening, with the first three sets being 25-23, 28-26, 23-25, before the Saints were able to pull out a 25-13 win in set four. 

AQ scored three of the first four points in the back-and-forth set before Josh Eaton started a 3-0 run for Rochester Christian. The Saints responded by retaking the lead with a 10-5 run. A kill from Emarion Buchanan aided the Warriors on their own 7-2 run with Jailen Tatum getting in the kill column. A 5-2 run followed another short run by the Saints before AQ finished off the final two points of the set. 

RCU put up five of the first seven set points with Claudio Arato getting a kill and Nehemiah Rosillo earning an ace. The Warriors continued putting points on the board, getting up to a 16-7 lead in the set, with Xander Slate and Josh Eaton earning kills. The Saints would then start to slowly climb back into the set, taking advantage of RCU errors by ending the set with an 18-6 run. 

RCU earned eight of the first 11 points, with Josh Eaton earning a kill. The Saints responded with a 9-4 run to even the score at 12 points apiece. From that point, the teams would trade points back and forth with neither team scoring more than twice in a row. After a 20-20 tie, Xander Slate would earn a pair of kills, and RCU would take advantage of AQ errors to earn the set win. 

The Saints took command of the final set of the evening with the first four points, before a service error and an ace from Jonathan Chow made it 4-2. The Saints would keep the pressure on the Warriors, scoring nine of the next 13 points. Josh Eaton and Jailen Tatum added some kills in before the Saints would eventually finish the final set 25-13. 

TOP PERFORMERS

Josh Eaton paced the RCU offense with 21 kills in the match, with Xander Slate putting up nine kills. Jonathan Chow assisted on 32 of the team's 37 kills.

Nehemiah Rosillo and Josh Eaton were the top defenders on the team, with Rosillo leading them in digs with 14, while Eaton recorded 11 digs. Jonathan Chow and Jailen Tatum each had three blocks, with one of Chow's being solo. 

UP NEXT

The Warriors begina three-game road trip when they take the floor on March 17, traveling to Lawrence Tech.