The 23rd ranked Eastern University volleyball team entered play on Saturday with a 13 match winning streak. Unfortunately, the Eagles would only extend that streak to 14. In the first match of the Haverford College triangular, Eastern defeated Johns Hopkins 3-0. Looking to make a statement in the region, the Eagles fell to number 22 Haverford 3-2.
"We struggled all day to get things going," said head coach Mark Birtwistle. "It wasn't until the fourth set of the second match that we really started executing the way we need to."
The Eagles played close sets all throughout the afternoon and early evening. Eastern pulled out narrow first and second set victories, 25-20 and 25-23 to go up 2-0. The defense stepped up to keep things close as four Eagles tallied double digits in digs. Nikki Kummerer picked up a match-high 18 digs. The visitors were finally able to put the match away in the third set 25-16.
Playing just over a half hour after the first match ended, the Eagles struggled early against Haverford. They dropped the first set 25-15. Eastern battled back in the second set. Down 23-21, Bridget Carey delivered a monster kill to pull the Eagles within one, but it wasn't enough as they lost 25-22 to fall behind two sets to none.
Undaunted, the Eagles rallied in the third set. Sophomore setter, Maria Horning began to exploit the holes of Haverford's defense by dumping sets over the net for kills. With the score 14-9 in favor of the Eagles, Haveford called a time out and it felt as if the tides were changing.
Both teams served aggressively after the time out, and the hosts rallied back. Courtney Reinhold, however, briefly took the match into her own hands. The sophomore All-American slammed a back row attack down for a point, and Horning came up with a huge block. Haverford pulled within two late in the third set, but Rachel Wenger was able to split her blockers for a kill, to give the Eagles a 24-21 lead. A side out by Haverford closed the gap to two, but a long attack a point later gave Eastern the 25-22 win.
Eastern jumped out quick in the fourth set, riding an 11-4 run into another Fords timeout. Two straight EU blocks eventually expanded the lead to ten points. Reinhold put the fourth set away with a power kill over her lone blocker for the 25-16 win, forcing a fifth set.
It looked like the Eagles were going to pull out the comeback victory as they once again started out hot. Carey opened the fifth with an attack that ricochetted off of her blockers to the back of Haverford's side of the court for a kill. Eastern led 4-0, but the hosts were able to confuse the Eagles' defense forcing a time out with the score 5-4 in favor of the Fords.
The Eagles forced another momentum change, when Reinhold came out of the time out and slammed a kill straight down to the right corner of Haverford's side of the court. Despite massive amounts of offensive and defensive efforts by Eastern it was not enough. Haverford walked away with a tight 16-14 victory in the fifth set to take the match.
Reinhold finished the triangular with 36 kills, including 22 in the final match. Horning posted 93 assists throughout the afternoon to go along with 8 kills. Heather Kauffman ended the day with one solo block and seven block assists.
The Eagles return to Freedom Conference action on Tuesday, October 6 at Manhattanville.
Johns Hopkins Box Score
Haverford Box Score
