The 23rd ranked Eastern University volleyball team beat 24th ranked Haverford College 3-0 to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the second straight year. The Eagles improve to 32-4 with the win over one of the teams that beat them earlier in the year. The Eagles will have another rematch opportunity tomorrow night when they take on top-ranked Juniata for a chance to advance to the Elite Eight.

The young Eastern squad won this afternoon's contest with defense. Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said of his team's effort, "We knew some of their tendencies and we adjusted our defense toward them, but the girls made plays.Haverford was hitting balls really well, but just kept popping the balls up." The Eagles only hit .182 for the match, but they held their local rivals to a feeble .079. In addition to the work digging balls, the Eagles also thwarted the Ford attack with a solid block at the net.

Set one went back and forth early until Eastern broke an 18-18 tie with five straight earned points on Christi Schlager's serve to seize control of the opening frame. The Eagles won the opening set 25-20 despite hitting just .156. They did, however, get critical kills at the right time. Courtney Reinhold had four of her fifteen kills in the opening set, and Mary Poole put down two straight balls in the critical run to help lift the Eagles.

The Eagles attacked on the serve in the second set and used four aces to build a 20-15 lead after the early action of the set went back and forth. Rachel Wenger and Reinhold each had critical kills late in the set to help their side hold the five point edge through the end of the set. In their match earlier in the year, the Fords won the first two sets and rallied to win the fifth set.

On this day, the match would not extend that long. Though Haverford built an 18-11 lead, the Eagles rallied with four straight points on Reinhold's serve to cut the deficit to 18-16. The Fords sided out, but Reinhold and Poole put down consecutive kills to close the gap to one. Eastern finally drew level at 20 on a Christi Schlager ace.

The third set went back and forth until Reinhold put down two consecutive kills to give the Eagles a match point and force a Haverford out of the time out. Out of the break, the Eastern defense anticipated the action of the play and put down a spectacular block to close out the match. Heather Kauffman and Maria Horning combined to stuff Haverford's last attack and lift the Eagles to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in program history.

Reinhold finished with a game-high 15 kills. Fellow All-American Maria Horning had 31 assists and and 17 digs. The Eagles held the Fords to .079 hitting and recorded seven blocks and 79 digs to thwart their attack. Nikki Kummerer, Reinhold, Kelly Groff, and Christi Schlager all joined Horning in double figures for digs. In addition to a pair of block assists, Heather Kaufmann registered a pair of solo blocks. 

Wenger continues to shine on the right side for the Eagles with seven kills and only a single error, and Poole contributed seven of her own. The Eagles will look to build on the momentum of their 13 match winning streak as they take on Juniata tomorrow night.