Rochester, NY - The Crimson Eagles split the opening day of the Nazareth College Invitational when they took on the #1 ranked Nazareth College and Southern Vermont College.

In the first match of the day, Philadelphia Biblical University took on the defending champions and top-ranked team in the land, Nazareth College... never an easy task. Nazareth had 17 kills to the Crimson Eagles' 6 in the opening set, winning 25-14. PBU made a contest out of it when they gave the defending champs all they could handle in the second set, but fell just short 25-12. Down 2-0, the Crimson Eagles needed to rally but couldn't stop the Golden Flyers attack, who had an attack percentage of .565 in the final set.

The Golden Flyers used a balanced attack PBU with 11 different players recording an attack kill. PBU's junior middle-hitter Ethan Mawhinney (Langhorne, PA / Neshaminy) finished tied with a game-high 8 kills and a superb .889 attacking percentage. Jon Wilson (Allentown, PA / Parkland) had a game-high 23 assists.

In the second match, the Crimson Eagles took on Southern Vermont College. 1st-year Coach Ben Fuller was looking for that first win of the season to boost his team's confidence after 3 early season losses and still coping with the graduation of record-setters Justin Brubaker and Drew Dillon. Against the Mountaineers, the Crimson Eagles finally got that win they were looking for. A late surge in the first set saw PBU come from 21-23 down to win 25-23. They carried that momentum the rest of the way, sweeping Southern Vermont 3-0.

PBU sits at 1-3.

Tomorrow, the Crimson Eagles take on #3 ranked Carthage College who upset #1 Nazareth earlier in the tournament.