CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Elmira College men's volleyball team traveled to Cambridge, MA for a conference contest with the Engineers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday evening. The Soaring Eagles battled hard but dropped a conference battle against the Engineers, 3-0. 

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Luke Jata opened the scoring with a kill on the opening rally to give EC the Early advantage. A kill from Drake Connors, set up by Nick Rohman, a few points later kept the Soaring Eagles in front early. Gabriel Staron picked a up a kill a bit later, as Elmira pulled ahead 4-3 in the first set. The Engineers responded with four consecutive points. Jata picked up another kill to slow down the Engineer's momentum. MIT scored seven of the next eight points, taking a 15-7 advantage in the opening set. The Engineers followed that up with another four-point run. Staron tallied two more kills as the set neared the end, one of them set up by Jata. Jata notched another kill as the teams traded points back and forth. The Engineers closed out the first set, winning 25-15.

 The Engineers opened the second set on an 8-1 scoring run. Jata picked another kill, assisted by Rohman again, to slow down the run. The Engineers answered back with three consecutive points. Dylan Vargas notched a kill, and a service ace and Elmira tried to close the gab in set two. Ethan Davenport and Jata got kills on three consecutive rallies to cut the deficit to 16-10. The Engineers answered with four consecutive points to take the momentum back. The Soaring Eagles went on a three-point scoring run that included another service ace, this one by Jata. Elmira scored three more consecutive points a bit later, including kills by George Flores Jr. and Jata. MIT closed out set two immediately after that, winning 25-19, and claiming the first two sets. The Engineers opened the third set on an 11-2 scoring run. Kills by Jata and Vargas back-to-back slowed down the momentum that MIT had. Jata picked up his tenth kill of the match to cut the deficit to five points. The Engineers scored four points in a row following that. Jata and Flores scored consecutive kills as the Soaring Eagles tried to build up some scoring momentum. Elmira got four consecutive points, including another kill from Davenport, cutting the deficit to 19-14. Jata tallied another kill as the two teams traded points towards the end of the third set. MIT closed out the third set, winning 25-19, and the match taking all three sets, as the Soaring Eagles fell in this one.

LEADERS
Offensively, Jata led the way with 11 kills, while tallying two digs and a service ace. Davenport notched four kills, a pair of digs, and a service ace as well. Erik Ziemblicki tallied 16 assist for the Soaring Eagles.

UP NEXT
The Soaring Eagles travel to Milton, MA on Saturday, March 7^th for a non-conference tri-match with the Badgers of Vermont State University Johnson and the Colonels of Curry College. The first match is set to start at 1:00 PM.