The Eastern University Eagles volleyball team extended their winning streak to 12 games with two more wins at the Blue Jay Classic on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles got off to a quick start at 10:00 AM in their first match with an efficient 3-0 win over Wesley College. With the morning win, Eastern qualified for the tournament championship, their second in two weekends, against the host Elizabethtown College Blue Jays.
The Host Blue Jays started quickly and put the Eagles back on their heels to start the Championship match. Eastern overcame some early errors and finally caught Elizabethtown at 19-19 before winning the first set 26-24. The Eagles quickly re-grouped and finished out the match with wins in the second and third sets by identical scores of 25-16.
Coach Birtwistle's side jumped out early and cruised in the second set but had to battle the whole way for the win in the final set. Birtwistle was impressed with the Blue Jays. "They played us tough," he commented, "we had to play really well. We played some of our best volleyball of the year."
A week earlier, Maria Horning came away with tournament Most Valuable Player honors at the Stevens Tech. Invite, while Courtney Reinhold made the All-Tournament team. This weekend, at the Blue Jay Classic, the roles reversed.
Reinhold picked up 60 kills, while making only six attack errors in 112 attempts for an astounding .482 hitting percentage. Twenty-five of Reinhold's kills came in the second day, including a match-high 17 kills in the championship match. Horning was able to keep the offense running on all cylinders throughout the weekend, picking up a total of 137 assists, including 41 in the championship.
Defensively for the Eagles, Nikki Kummerer tallied 30 digs in the championship match and made only one reception error. Three other Eagles picked up double digits in digs, including Reinhold (16), Horning (12), and Christen Jansson (11).
Eastern returns home on Wednesday, September 30 at 7:00 PM against FDU-Florham for their third Freedom Conference match of 2009. The Eagles will hit the road again on Saturday, October 3rd as they take part in a triangular match at Haverford College against the nationally ranked hosts and Johns Hopkins.
