Eagles Volleyball Goes 2-1 in Conference Pod

David Finney | photo by Angel Cornista

Waleska, GA - Eagles Men's Volleyball hosted the MidSouth Conference Pod this past Friday and Saturday. The round-robin style pod brought in teams from far distances to one neutral location to "knockout" conference games all at one time. It was a good weekend of volleyball as the Eagles had the goal of at least going 2-1 in the pod - If they went 3-0, then even better.

After beating Midway on Friday afternoon and losing to nationally ranked Georgetown on Friday evening, Reinhardt was set to face Bluefield from Virginia on Saturday morning and a chance to reach their goal. The Eagles have had a great start to this 2022 season, however, they are still a new and young program. When you have youth on your team, you can expect to have ups and downs as the players learn to grow as a team and a program. Saturday morning would be one of those test and learning experiences for the young Eagles.

On paper and looking at the records, one could think that Reinhardt would be the obvious favorite and take care of business, but as sports go - any given day teams can step up and play above what their record might show.  This was the case in the Bluefield matchup as Reinhardt would be pushed to five sets before edging out a win. This can be a great experience for Coach Goodhind's young squad as they learn to battle through adverse situations and work their way to a tough-fought victory.

The first set would see the scoring start off tight, but the Eagles would get a good five-point lead halfway through. Matthew Corrales led the Eagles with a series of kills giving them a 10-5 lead. Bruno Dewes would be the assist man as he usually is for the Eagles and the lead would stay at five at 16-11 Eagles. The set would tighten as the Rams would pull to within one at 19-18. The set would stay this way to the end as Bluefield had an attack error followed by a final kill by Chase Cross, 25-23 Eagles.

The second set would stay close as well through most of the game, however, the Eagles had the lead the entire time. The lead was a narrow one-point lead most of the way for Reinhardt, but it did get to three for the Eagles at 16-13. The set was tied again at 19 and would stay close until the last set of points where Bluefield capitalize on a service error and attacking error by Reinhardt.

In the third set, Reinhardt would gain a lead that reached five points early at 12-7 and they would never relinquish this lead through the end. It did tighten to within two points at 15-13, however, the Eagles would get that extended to four as they took control of this set. Corrales would lead the way again for the Eagles getting necessary kills at crucial times. The final kill would come from Chase Cross who was assisted by Dewes winning the third set for the Eagles, 25-22.

The third set would see Reinhardt get another five-point lead at 13-8 after Chase Cross and Dalton Fellows blocked an attack by Bluefield. Everything was looking like the Eagles would wrap up this set, but Bluefield was not ready to go home just yet. The Rams would tie the game at 16 and take the lead 18-17 on two successful kills. The remainder of this set would have several ties and lead changes. It was all tied at 25 when the Rams were able to get two more kills to win the fourth set, 27-25.

This tied the sets at 2-2 and a final fifth set was needed to decide the winner. In this set, the Eagles would not be denied as they pushed out to a quick lead and didn't take long to get to the final deciding 15th point. The set ended on a final kill by freshman, Victor Pacheco.

It was a good weekend, packed full of volleyball at The Brown Athletic Center.  The season is still early but the team is showing that they are a talented group that can create headaches for the top teams.  Chase Cross led the Eagles with 17 kills in the game followed by Matthew Corrales with 12. Troy Sly and Victor Pacheco added 9 and 8 kills respectively. Bruno Dewes would end up with an amazing 54 assists for the game.

Coach Goodhind is proud of his teams' efforts and their focus on the tasks at hand.  He had this to say about the weekend of games, "This week we asked the team to make a goal and then work hard to achieve that goal. The goal they choose was to go 3-1 this week. As we completed our last match of the pod the guys did achieve that goal! We continue to learn and strive to improve weekly. As happy as I am the team was able to do that, we must put those matches in the rearview and all our focus will go to our next opponent and going 1-0. I want to give ALL the Honor and Glory to GOD!"

The Eagles will be on the road for two games this week. The frst one on the road Thursday at St. Andrews in North Carolina and another match on Saturday at Truett-McConnell.