ELMIRA, N.Y. – The Elmira College men's volleyball team hosted the Statesmen of Hobart College for a conference matchup inside Speidel Gymnasium on Friday evening. Elmira got off to a strong start but fell in the end to Hobart College, 3-0.

PLAY-BY-PLAY
The Soaring Eagles got off to a strong start when a kill from Luke Jata opened the scoring. EC went on a four-point scoring run that was started and capped off by a Gabriel Staron kill, helping the Soaring Eagles capture an early 6-1 advantage. Staron notched another kill, his third in the early going, a bit later, to push Elmira in front 9-5. Jata added two kills over the next four rallies, both assisted by Erik Ziemblicki, that maintained EC's five-point advantage. The Statesmen rallied for seven of the next eight points to even up the first set at 13. Staron tallied his fourth kill of the match to slow the Hobart momentum and put EC back in front. Dylan Vargas and Jata scored kills on back-to-back rallies that pushed the Soaring Eagles ahead 17-16. Vargas grabbed another kill a few rallies later to keep the Soaring Eagles just out in front 19-18. Hobart captured all the momentum, scoring seven consecutive points, and pulling out in front 24-19. EC tallied back-to-back points, but Hobart eventually closed out the opening set 25-21.

Staron opened the second set with a kill to get Elmira on the board first. Hobart responded with three consecutive points to put themselves in front. Jata notched another kill, assisted by Nick Rohman, to take back some of the momentum.  Hobart answered again with three consecutive points to take a 7-3 advantage. Elmira went on a three-point scoring run of their own, capped off by another Vargas kill, that cut the deficit to one point. Staron and Jata followed up with kills that kept the deficit at 11-9. The Statesmen went on another three-point run to take some momentum away from Elmira. Vargas and Staron picked up kills to slow down the Hobart run and cut their advantage to 18-14. The Statesmen closed out the second set by scoring seven of the final eight points, claiming the set victory 25-15. Staron opened the third set with his tenth kill of the match to get EC on the board. Hobart responded with four of the next five points before a kill from Jata stopped the run. Staron added another kill to his total later in the set to even up the score at seven. Hobart recaptured momentum as they pulled ahead of Elmira 14-10 by scoring five out of six points. Jata was able to slow down the momentum once again by tallying a kill, this one unassisted. Hobart answered back by scoring four consecutive points, claiming an 18-11 advantage. Drake Connors picked up a service ace as Elmira scored back-to-back points. Two more kills from Staron helped EC cut the deficit to 21-16. Hobart closed out the third set, winning 25-19, and claimed victory in the match 3-0.
 
LEADERS
Offensively, Staron led the way with 13 kills while tallying four digs. Jata totaled 11 kills and five digs. Connors notched seven digs, leading the team. Rohman tallied 19 assists for the Soaring Eagles.

UP NEXT
The Soaring Eagles travel to Oneonta, NY for a tri-match with the Hawks of Hartwick College and the Highlanders of Houghton University of Saturday, March 14^th. The first match is set to start at 11:00 AM.