The 23rd ranked Eastern University volleyball team maintained their dominance in the Freedom Conference with a 3-0 win at King's College. The defending league champion Eagles won their tenth straight regular season conference match since joining the league last fall.
As has been their pattern through the year, the Eagles set out to put their opponent on the defensive with an aggressive service game. Nikki Kummerer took the spotlight in this with five of the team's 9 service aces. Kummerer, the returning 1st Team All-Freedom libero, also picked up a match-high 16 digs.
As a team the Eagles pounded out 46 kills on only 96 attempts and made only six attack errors for a stunning .416 team hitting percentage. The Eagles jumped to early leads in all three sets and, despite brief lulls, were able to close out the Monarchs with solid runs late.
Courtney Reinhold made the most of her limited attack attempts. The sophomore All-American converted 13 of her 17 attempts into points for Eastern. Bridget Carey and Rachel Wenger picked up six kills each, and Heather Kauffman added five kills in just 8 attempts.
Maria Horning made sure that her squad hit a high percentage. The Freedom Conference Player of the Week picked up 38 assists and caught the King's defense off guard with 4 kills. She also picked up 10 digs.
"Nikki, Maria and Kelly Groff were very consistent tonight for us," said head coach Mark Birtwistle. "They were the only three to play all three sets. One of our goals coming into this match was to get a chance to see everyone in as much as possible in order for them to all work on the things we've been working on together in practice. Every player stepped up and played well. Heather had a great match coming off the bench for us picking up those five kills without an attack error."
The Eagles improve to 10-1, while the Monarchs fall to 11-3.
Eastern hits the road again on Friday and Saturday as they face off against Wesley College, Catholic University, and Widener University in the Blue Jay Classic, hosted by Elizabethtown College.
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