CHARLOTTE, N.C. - After a tough four-set loss against King (TN) Friday evening, Queens was back in action one day later with a road matchup against Barton. The Royals fired on all cylinders and played their most well put-together volleyball of the season so far, earning a victory in four sets (25-19, 30-32, 27-25, 25-22).

With the win, Queens improves to 2-7, while Barton falls to 0-6.

MATCH SUMMARY
Matthew Pilch continued his hot streak and got the Royals going early. After putting away a kill that gave them a 4-3 lead, he soon earned another kill that sparked a three-point run which he capped off with an ace. Later in the set, Nathan Vaupel, who saw his first action of the season, put up his second solo block of the set to put Queens ahead, 20-15. A solo block by Jack Brinkman would ultimately clinch the opening set, 25-19.

Trailing 5-4 early, a kill by Pilch sparked a nice run once again that Riley Mulkey would cap with a kill that put Queens ahead, 9-5. Barton would settle and push back, eventually cutting the deficit to one, 13-12. Brinkman found open court yet again later in the set to give Queens a 20-15 lead yet again. Once again, the Bulldogs gave the Royals all they could handle and would take the lead at 25-24 and force set point. Pilch knotted the set amd both teams would battle to come out on top until a late three-point run gave Barton the second set, 32-30. 

After swapping the first two sets, both teams were neck and neck as the score differential never got above three the entire set. Leitao served up a well-place ace to give Queens the aforementioned three-point lead, 16-13. Barton clawed their way back in the set, earning six of the next eight points and pulled ahead with a one-point lead which would eventually grow to two, 22-20. The lead was quickly erased, as back-to-back kills by Vaupel and Leitao knotted the score at 22. With the set later tied at 25, an error gave Queens set point, before a kill by Ananias Hayes would clinch the third set for the Royals. 

The fourth set followed suit of the previous three, as there were six lead changes throughout. A three-point run gave Barton an 8-10 lead early on, but was replicated by Queens who pushed three points right back and took an 11-10 lead. The Royals were to the test, as their run was doubled by Barton who rattled off six consecutive points and pulled ahead, 16-11. Queens chipped away at the lead and were sparked yet again by recently subbed in Ryan Cymbor, whose kill was the first of four consecutive points that eventually propelled Queens to take the set and ultimately the match. 

COACH'S WORDS
"Today was as well-rounded of a match as we've played all season" said head coach Jeremy Price. Our outsides were great today, I thought Matthew Pilch was great on the outside with 20 kills, doing a nice job of pacing our attack. Jack Brinkman was awesome as well with 18 kills. Nathan Vaupel did a nice all-around job in his first action of the season; 14 kills, six solo blocks and an ace, couldn't have asked more from him. Ryan Cymbor did a nice job coming in late with a block and a good serve that helped us clinch the last point, and lastly Daniel Leitao was awesome distributing the ball today with 60 assists."

BY THE NUMBERS

• After achieving his career-high in kills last time out, Matthew Pilch set a new career high tonight with 20 kills.
• In his first action of the season, Nathan Vaupel impressed with 14 kills to just one error, hitting an effective .591 on the night. 
• Jack Brinkman saw success on both sides of the ball, putting away 18 kills while leading the team in digs with 16.
• In his first major setting role of the season, Leitao managed an astounding 15.0 assists per set with 60 total on the evening. 

NEXT UP
The Royals continue their lengthy road stint next week with a match against Tusculum on Thursday, February 9. 

SOCIAL MEDIA
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