Field Hockey and Women's Soccer won Freedom Conference Championships for Eastern earlier in the day. Top-seeded Volleyball completed the Championship day sweep with a convincing 3-0 win over third-seeded DeSales University. The 33-1 Eagles secured the Freedom Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA National Tournament.
The Bulldogs brought a sizable group of vocal fans and fed off that energy early, but the steady hitting of Kara Hildbrand and Courtney Reinhold put the visitors under pressure throughout the opening set. The Eagles pounded out 12 kills without an error in the opening set.
Eastern's young team excelled on the defensive side of the court as well. Nikki Kummerer led the Eagles with a game-high 13 digs. Nicole Burns picked up a pair of solo blocks and three assists to lead the defense at the net. The Eagles closed out the opening set with a strong run to pull away to a 25-15 first set win.
DeSales jumped to a 7-3 lead in the second set, but the Eagles rallied back to take a lead at 11-10. Maria Horning put together a strong run of serves to help the Eagles to pull away late. Eastern put away 16 kills while hitting .400 in the second set. Eastern closed out the match with a 25-17 final set win.
Reinhold finished the day with 13 kills, 2 aces, and three blocks to earn Tournament MVP honors. Hildebrand also reached double-figure kills with a dominating 10 kills on 17 attempts. Horning, who ranked eighth in the country with 10.8 assists per set coming into the week, kept her average with 34 assists.
Kylie Fehnel led the visitors with five kills and six blocks. DeSales finishes the year at 20-13.
Eastern completed their ten games against Freedom Conference opponents without dropping a set. Only two conference teams scored more than twenty points in a set. The 24th ranked Eagles have dropped only 11 sets in their thirty four matches.
The Eagles qualify for the National Tournament for the 9th time in the last ten years. This year's edition is the 5th squad in school history to eclipse the 30 win mark. Three of those four teams reached the Sweet 16.
Regional Competition will start Thursday at Juniata College. Eastern will learn their first round draw on Monday morning.
