The Roanoke College volleyball team split two grueling matches on Saturday as they remained even for the season at 6-6. Roanoke defeated Eastern Mennonite in five sets, then lost to Methodist in five at the Cregger Center in Salem.

Roanoke defeated Eastern Mennonite 25-17, 26-24, 19-25, 24-26, 15-10. Kylah Blackmore led Roanoke with 14 kills and 26 digs while Logan Graves and Sydney Daniel chipped in a dozen kills each.

In the first set, Roanoke used a 6-0 run sparked by back-to-back kills from Daniel to take a 23-15 advantage. Graves closed out the set with two consecutive kills to give RC a 1-0 edge.

Roanoke won five straight points early in the second set to take an 8-2 lead following an error by the Royals. Eastern Mennonite took a late 24-23 lead following an RC error before Roanoke took the last three points of the set, capped by a kill from Alex Wolfe to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

EMU won the next two sets but RC’s Sydney Daniel kicked off a 4-1 run in the fifth set to make it 13-9 RC as the Maroons took the match. Wolfe and Blackmore each recorded a kill in the final two points to close out the game.

Against Methodist the visitors rallied for a five-game win over Roanoke to close out the day. After Methodist rallied in game two to win 25-23, RC came out in game three and took a 10-3 lead on a kill by Daniel. Methodist rallied and was able to tie the game at 18-18 before RC closed out the game by winning seven of the final nine points to take a 2-1 lead.

A Liley Henry service ace gave Methodist a 23-18 lead in game four. A kill by Blackmore and two by Wolfe cut the MU lead to 24-23, but the Monarchs got the last two points to force a fifth and deciding set, and they won that to get out of Salem with a “W”.

The Maroons were at Southern Virginia Wednesday, and Saturday they’ll host Virginia Wesleyan for a “Family Weekend” ODAC match at noon. Roanoke will play Southern Virginia again Monday, this time at home at 7 pm.