The Benedictine University men's volleyball team dropped a four-set match to non-conference Saint Xavier University on Friday night in front of a packed Dan and Ada Rice Center by scores of 19-25, 25-27, 25-19, 25-23.

Saint Xavier (2-0) took an early lead and never looked back, tallying 13 kills en route to a 25-19 first set win.

It was Benedictine (2-3) that took the lead in the second set, going up by as many as five before SXU rallied back to tie it at 14-all. The Eagles took another lead, 20-15, but again allowed the Cougars to climb back and take the win.

Benedictine came out on fire in the third set, going up 4-0. The momentum never stopped for BenU, winning their first set of the match.

The fourth set saw Saint Xavier climb back from an 8-3 deficit to tie it at 17. After a back and forth battle, the Cougars came out on top to take the match in four sets.

Eric Tarnow led the Eagles with 12 kills and just two errors. Sterling Glover had nine kills and 12 digs while Markus Riemer had 31 assists and 10 digs. Ian Thompson led the defense with 14 digs.

As a team, BenU recorded 38 kills, 56 digs and 12 blocks.

The Eagles are back in action on Friday, January 30 when they travel to River Forest to take on Juniata at 6:00 p.m.