CHARLESTON, W. Va. – The Queens University of Charlotte men's volleyball team picked up the program's first-ever win over an opponent from a major conference on Friday night, defeating University of Charleston (W. Va.) of the EIVA by a 3-1 (25-20, 21-25, 25-22, 25-22) score inside the Wehrle Innovation Center.
 
The Royals (4-4) took advantage of 16 Charleston (1-8) service errors and tallied 41 digs to secure the historic win. Junior Nic Cavallaro led Queens with 12 kills and a .267 hitting mark to go along with six digs and two service aces.
 
"This is a huge win in terms of our season and our program's trajectory," said Head Men's Volleyball Coach Jeremy Price. "Beating an EIVA team is an important milestone for us to mark and hopefully continue to play hard with a challenging schedule. It feels good to go into the matches at Hawaii with momentum after winning two matches this week."
 
Queens opened the match by hitting .263 in the first set of action and rallied from an early 11-9 deficit to take the match lead. After Charleston took the second set to even the match score, the Royals hit above the .300 mark in the third set to regain the match lead.
 
Momentum carried over into the fourth set for Queens as back-to-back kills from junior JP Payne and Cavallaro put the Royals ahead 9-4. The Golden Eagles took a 14-13 lead midway through the frame and held a 22-20 advantage late before a kill from Payne sparked a run of five unanswered points to seal the match decision.
 
Junior Tristan Santoyo narrowly missed a double-double with nine kills and 10 digs. Payne finished with six kills, four total blocks, and hit. 500 from the middle, while fellow junior Josh Bragg totaled seven kills and two service aces.
 
Freshman Brandon Grabow registered 30 assists on the night and fellow freshman Guillermo Jordan totaled nine digs.
 
"I'm really proud of the effort of Nic Cavallaro who played his most complete match of the season tonight and JP Payne who has brought a lot of heart and been an emotional leader for us these past few matches," Price commented.
 
Queens heads to Honolulu, Hawaii next weekend for three consecutive matches against University of Hawaii, University of California-Irvine, and Concordia University (Calif.) to complete its four-game road trip.