The College at Florham Devils were going to need everything to go right to upset the top seeded and #8 Eastern University Eagles in this evening's Freedom Conference Volleyball final. When a soft tip from Courtney Reinhold found a hole for the first point of the night, it seemed clear that tonight would not be a night for upsets. Reinhold finished the evening with 15 kills to lead the Eagles to an efficient 3-0 home win.

The Eagles built an early lead in the opening set, but the visitors showed some spark and cut the deficit to 13-10 on a kill from Kerry Kuperman. Reinhold answered with a hard cross-court kill for a side-out and the Eagles then earned a point on a good slide from Christen Jansson. Eastern was able to side-out effectively for the remainder of the opening set to win 25-17.

The Eagles jumped to a quick 5-0 start in the second set. Nikki Kummerer picked up a tough tip to give the Eagles an easy opportunity to go to 4-0 on a kill to the middle of the court from Reinhold. The Eagles  pulled away to an 8-1 lead on a big double block from Jansson and Rachel Wenger, but the Devils (30-8) scratched back to within three at 10-7. Mary Poole made a pair of big plays with a kill on a slide and a solo block to help build the Eastern lead back to 13-7. 

The top-seeded Eagles held the lead on the way to a 25-15 set win. The third set saw the favored hosts build an early lead on five straight service points from Maria Horning and never look back. The three set win is the 28th straight such victory against league opponents for the Eagles.

Reinhold led the way with a stunning .700 hitting percentage and eight digs. Poole hit .667 with six kills and no errors, and Horning added 33 assists. In the contest, the Eagles did well on the block. Jansson led the way with six block assists.

Eastern Head Coach Mark Birtwistle, who was again selected as Freedom Conference Coach of the Year, noted that his squad had to work to keep the pressure on the Devils and keep Lauren Brazier from getting a lot of attempts.

"She's good," he said, "when she had swings she put them down, but we tried to keep them from getting her the ball. I think we did a good job in that." Brazier finished with eight kills and a.412 hitting percentage, but the rest of the FDU squad hit in negative numbers for the evening.

Kelly Groff earned recognition as the Tournament MVP. The sophomore libero finished with a match-best 10 digs, and has been a steady force in the Eastern defense all year.

With the win, the Eagles secure their third straight berth in the NCAA Tournament field. Unlike years past, however, there is no readily visible destination for Eastern. Birtwistle has learned that there will not be a host institution from the Mid-Atlantic Region, so the Eastern team will learn the location of their next game on Monday at 11am. The NCAA will webcast a selection show at ncaa.com.

At this point, six of the eight Regional sites have been announced. New York University and Christopher Newport University are the two closest locations.