ST. LOUIS- A great journey came to an end one day early for Eastern University Volleyball. The No. 4 Eagles dropped a three set decision to No. 5 Wittenberg University Tigers in the Semifinals of the Division III National Tournament.

The Tigers (36-3) entered the weekend on fire after topping defending National Champion and No. 1 Calvin in the Regional Final. They hardly skipped a beat with a convincing three-set win over California Lutheran on Friday, and rode that momentum to an early lead in each of the three sets this evening.

Down 9-4 early in the first set, the Eagles battled back to tie the score at 15-15 coming out of the first media timeout. Even with the rally, the Eagles were never able to grab the lead and Wittenberg pulled away to a 25-21 first set win.

The Tigers again jumped to an early lead in the second set. The Eagles again pushed back to close a six point deficit to three at 14-11, but a huge kill from Wittenberg All-American Kimmie Dyer sparked a three point run that propelled Wittenberg to a 25-13 win in the second set.

The Eagles trailed 10-3 in the third set and again rallied to close the gap to three points at 16-13, but the Tigers had too much fire power in the attack and closed the match on a 9-5 run.

Courtney Reinhold finished with a match-high 12 kills and the senior All-American added 12 digs. Katrina Pisch finished with six kills and a pair of blocks. Kelly Groff finished the match with 14 digs, which gives her a school-record 590 for the year. The junior libero is twelve digs short of 1500.

Tonight's contest was the final one for a senior class that went 133-15 over a four year span. Maria Horning and Courtney Reinhold became the first classmates to be named to four All-America teams. Nikki Kummerer, Christi Schlager, and Mary Poole were each influential in helping Eastern Volleyball to become the first Eastern University team to reach a National Semifinal.

Wittenberg will play No. 6 Christopher Newport University in tomorrow evening's National Championship match.