NEWPORT NEWS, Va.--Last year, Eastern University Volleyball's season ended with a heartbreaking loss in the NCAA tournament to Christopher Newport University in five sets. The Eagles (22-1) and the Captains (23-4) needed all five rounds again in this year's prize fight rematch. However, this time, the No. 5 Eagles ended up on top, defeating the No. 8 Captains 25-23, 15-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-7.
Eastern sophomore Kearby Benak delivered the game-ending blow with her 15th kill of the match. With Benak serving in the fifth set, the Eagles rallied to score eight straight points and forced CNU to call two timeouts during that stretch. That points-streak proved crucial to Eastern winning the final set.
"Kearby's probably been our best server all year," Coach Mark Birtwistle said. "She has a good serve and gets teams out of system. She's been serving where we need it and that lets us set up our blocks."
Birtwistle said he doesn't get caught up in the payback factor of the game, noting that Eastern did beat CNU in the regular season last year too. Instead, he was more excited about the fact that his team just beat a very tough opponent in a hard-fought game.
He mentioned that at some point in the game, each one of his players stepped up and did what needed to be done, especially freshman Lauren Sproles who had 15 kills and a team-high .333 hitting percentage.
Courtney Reinhold led the Eagles with 21 kills and hit .308.
In the match, Eastern hit .211 in the five sets with 26 errors while CNU hit .206 with 16 errors. The lower than usual hitting percentages of both teams reflected the defensive nature of the game.
Maria Horning lead the Eagles with 32 digs, good for seventh most ever in a match by an Eastern player. Birtwistle noted that when the Captains were getting out of system they would target Horning with attacks to force her to dig and be unable to set. Horning still finished with 53 assists and Birtwistle praised his other middle hitters for stepping up and setting the ball after Maria dug it. Both Kelly Groff and Kearby Benak added 21 digs each.
Not only did Kearby Benak record the final kill, but she also opened the match with the first two points in game one. The Eagles soon accumulated a 13-6 lead, but the Captains stormed back to tie the game at 18. The teams traded the next five points back and forth, but Eastern's Lauren Sproles and Katrina Pisch sealed the deal with back-to-back kills.
The Eagles again started with the lead in the second set, but the Captains tied the game at six with a service ace by Bailey Jensen. Jensen led the Captains with 16 kills. After giving up the lead, Eastern failed to regain it the rest of the set.
The score in the third set bounced back and forth until Eastern went on a 8-2 rally to finish the set and win 25-19.
In the fourth set, Eastern needed just three more points to clinch the match, but committed three straight errors, allowing Christopher Newport to tie the game at 22.The teams swapped the next point and CNU's Christie Fellows scored the final two points to send the match to the tie-breaking set.
Eastern fell behind 0-2 in game five but rattled off nine straight points. CNU could not recover and Eastern held on for the 15-7 win.
Eastern plays conference opponent King's College on Tuesday.
