This weekend's games in Elizabethtown were probably on the wrong side of the county to feel like home games for Eastern's Lancaster-laden squad, but the 24th ranked Eagles were able to keep their winning ways going with Friday wins over the Elizabethtown College and Gallaudet University. Eastern improves to a 29-1 with the two wins.
For the first time this year, the Eagles opened a tournament with the host team. It looked as thought that match was going to be a quick one when Eastern won the opening two sets 25-17 and 25-14, but the Blue Jays battled back to take the third set 25-22. Even with the third set loss, Eastern took some momentum into the fourth set as they staged a late rally to nearly end the match in three.
Elizabethtown used nearly error-free hitting and tough serving to forge a 24-17 lead. At that point, it looked like the Eagles would drop their tenth set of the year and try to re-group for the fourth. A big solo block from Mandy Platt earned a side-out for the Eagles. Mary Poole then served a pair of aces in a four point run to force an Elizabethtown timeout.
That bit of momentum seemed to be enough to get the Eastern team back in sync for the final set. In the final frame, they hit .375 and played some of their best volleyball of the day to close out the match 25-14.
With a .444 hitting percentage for the match, Kara Hildebrand put away a very efficient 10 kills. Courtney Reinhold connected on 17 kills and added 15 digs and a pair of blocks.
Maria Horning battled through illness to pick up 44 assists, six blocks, and three aces. Nikki Kummerer, one of the few players on the Eastern roster not from the Lancaster area, contributed a team-high 17 digs from her libero spot.
Eastern seemed to be quite comfortable in the second match of the day. They broke open the Gallaudet match with an explosive run of points in the first set where Horning took over the match. The freshman setter put down a pair of kills and seemed to read everything just right. On one occasion, she even picked up an assist to Reinhold on a back-row dig of a ferocious attack.
Eastern raced to 25-15 and 25-12 wins in the opening two sets before struggling a little in a 25-23 win in the final stanza of the day. Reinhold again paced the Eastern hitters with 16 kills. She also added 12 digs, an ace, and a pair of blocks. Mandy Platt was second on the team with 7 kills. Kummerer again led the Eagles with 14 digs and three aces.
Eastern returns to action tomorrow at Elizabethtown against Washington and Jefferson College and Cortland State. The Eagles will return home to host the Freedom Conference Semi-final against a to-be-determined opponent on Wednesday night. There will be admission charged for all Conference Playoff Volleyball.
