With national ranking on the line, the 24th ranked Eastern University Eagles and a powerhouse Williams team squared up in the second match of the day at the Ducks Classic at Stevens Tech in Hoboken, N.J. The Eagles emerged with a hard-faught 3-1 win.

Williams, who just slipped out of the national rankings last week, put pressure on the Eastern attack with quality service, and held the Eagles to a .231 hitting percentage for the first set with solid defense. The Eagles, however, returned the favor as they limited the Ephs to a .088 hitting percentage in a tight 26-24 first set win.

The Eagles used strong service rotations from Maria Horning and Mary Poole to build  a 15-10 lead midway through, but the Ephs took advantage of several strong service rotations of their own to tie the set at 21-21. The two teams exchanged points and the opening set remained level at 23 before the Eagles took three of the last four points to claim the critical first set. All-American outside hitter Courtney Reinhold picked up three kills in the last five Eastern points of the set. With Reinhold out of the front for the final point, first year middle hitter Christen Jansson put away the final point.

The Eagles carried the momentum of the first set win into the second. After dropping the first point of the set, Eastern responded with a 7-1 run and never trailed in the 25-19 win. Rachel Wenger led the way with six kills in the second set. The Eagles connected for 17 kills with a .316 hitting percentage for the second set.

Up 2-0, the Eagles stumbled a bit and dropped the third set 25-21. While the offensive numbers looked very similar, the Ephs found their rhythm and were able to receive serve and hit for a high percentage. The two teams exchanged points for much of the set before Williams won the final four points to close the match score to 2-1.

In the fourth set, Eastern jumped to a 12-6 lead and never trailed on the way to a 25-19 victory. Wenger ended the match with her career-best 19th kill. The first year opposite hit a sparkling .581. Reinhold and Bridget Carey also reached double figure kills with 17 and 12.Nikki Kummerer led the Eastern defense with a match-high 20 digs

Maria Horning again orchestrated the attack for Coach Birtwistle's squad. The sophomore All-American finished the night with 50 assists and was able to find openings in the Williams' defense as the team finished the night with a solid .291 hitting percentage against a very good defensive team.

Head coach Mark Birtwistle was impressed with how his team responded to the level that Williams brought. He commented, "This was a great experience for our young team. We beat a good team who was just recently ranked nationally. We're not done. We have two more solid teams to face tomorrow."

The Eagles take the court at 10:00 AM tomorrow against SUNY-Cortland and at 1:00 PM against the host team, Stevens Tech. Eastern beat both teams in four sets last year. Follow the opening match with live stats and watch the webcast of the second match by clicking the links below or on the schedule page.

The Eagles's volleyball team traveled to Hoboken, N.J. on Friday night to take part in the 2009 Ducks Classic, hosted by Stevens Tech. Eastern faced off against a tough Williams College squad in their first match of the tournament, and came away with a 3-1 win.

Box Score 

Live Stats 10 am

Webcast 1pm