The Eastern University volleyball team could be forgiven for looking past their 3:00 pm match with Arcadia to the Evening match with 11-1 Lebanon Valley College. The Eagles jumped out to an early 11-1 lead and held their focus to beat Arcadia in three sets. After a long wait between matches, Coach Birtwistle's young squad outlasted Lebanon Valley and ran their record to 10-0 with a three set win. The Eagles continue with tournament action tomorrow.
In the opener, Eastern's serve receive was flawless and their serving was menacing. The hitters benefited from solid passing and a good number of free attacks. With the pressure from Eastern's attack on, the Scarlet Knights were unable to find offensive rhythm and the Eagles quickly advanced to the second round. Courtney Reinhold led the Eagles with 11 kills and three blocks. Her .588 hitting percentage also paced the team. Kara Hildebrand put down nine kills and a block, and Nicole Burns put together an 11 point game with four blocks.
With the Eastern-Arcadia match ending early, and the Rowan vs. Arcadia match starting late and going to five sets, the Eastern team had an extended rest between matches. The lay off seemed to catch the Eagles a little, as they struggled in serving and receiving coming out of the gate against a very sound defensive team from Lebanon Valley.
The Dutch took advantage of several Eastern serving errors to tie the game late in the first set, but the Eagles were able to put their serving together for a good run and side out for the win. First year libero Nikki Kummerer finished the first set with a well-placed down ball from the back row. Eastern hit just .243 in the opening game and the LVC defense seemed to give the hitters problems. Birtwistle said of the opening set, "We struggled a bit in serve receive and in service, but we were able to work our way out of it. They [Lebanon Valley] are a very good defensive team, and I think we were a little unsettled by the stuff that kept coming back at us."
Early on, the second set looked like it was going to be a runaway for the young Eastern team. A Maria Horning pancake sparked an extended rally to help the Eagles earn a point and seize a five point lead, but LVC rallied out of a time out to tie the score at eleven. It looked as though the Eagles were going to jump to an 18-16 lead on a scrambling quick that Burns pushed hard to the back right corner, but the play was ruled a lift and LVC tied the match. The Dutch quickly took the lead on an ace, but the Eagles rallied to close out the set by winning nine of the last ten points.
Eastern finished the second set with five freshmen and Mandy Platt on the floor. Platt showed her senior leadership with a great kill on a slide to put the Eagles up 2-0. "That play [the lift call] could have been a big turning point in the game, " said Birtwistle, "but the girls stayed in it and put together a really nice run of points to finish. It is good for us to have to face challenges like that."
Eastern faced plenty of challenges in the final set as well. With the hitters struggling to find the floor, and a couple tough serve receive rotations,the match seemed destined to go to at least four sets. LVC forged a 20-16 lead behind tough serving and solid defense.
After a side out, Kummerer stepped back to serve. She helped her squad to earn four straight points to seize the lead at 21-20. "Nikki did very well there," said Birtwistle, "we had several service errors earlier in the match, but she stepped up and did a real nice job putting them under pressure." Platt's play in serve receive and back row defense keyed the late run for the Eagles. The senior picked up nine digs for the match and seemed to find Maria Horning's hands with each defensive effort.
No Eastern hitter reached double-figure kills for the match, but Hildebrand and Burns provided a solid block at the net and each reached 11 points with four blocks and seven kills. Reinhold contributed nine points and 14 digs. Maria Horning set a new career mark with three solo blocks.
Birtwistle stated that the challenge of playing against such a good defensive team would be very important for his young team. The Eagles will play against Rowan in the final game of Pool play before advancing to the championship game against York.
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