ATLANTA-- Eastern University Volleyball earned a pair of 3-0 wins in their first two contests at the Doc Partin Invitational hosted by Emory University. The No. 5 Eagles bested Faulkner University in the opening game before downing No. 16 Trinity (Texas) in their final game of the day. The wins set up tomorrow's showdown between Eastern and the No. 4 Emory Eagles.

Courtney Reinhold led the way for the Eagles (6-0) in the opener. The senior All-American outside hitter put down 17 kills and joined in on a pair of blocks. Fellow All-American Maria Horning dished out 37 assists. 

Eastern was unable to run away with any of the sets against the Alabama school, but solid passing and good play in the middle kept the Eagles ahead throughout the match. Mary Poole put up her best match of the early season with eight kills on 22 swings.

Eastern head coach Mark Birtwistle was pleased with his team's passing in the opener.

"We did what we do well," he said. "We passed well enough to get quality attacks out of the middle allowing us to side out and stay ahead."

TheEagles could be faulted for looking ahead to the match-up with the #16 ranked Texas squad. Houston native Kearby Benak showed well against her home-state opponents. The sophomore outside hitter finished with a three-set career best 16 kills to lead the Eagles. Reinhold had ten kills and Horning passed out 36 assists.

The Tigers (5-1) boasteda balanced attack that provided a tight match for the first two sets. The first set saw both teams earning side-outs until the score hit the 20's. Eastern was able to score on serve to pull out a 25-22 win late.

Trinity jumped to a big lead in the second set, but an impressive serving run from junior libero Kelly Groff helped bring the Eagles back, and Eastern stormed to a 25-22 second set win. The Eagles jumped out to a big lead in the final set before Trinity rallied late to pull the score to 25-17.

Birtwistle was really pleased with his team's performance in the match and was really pleased with their play in the final set.

"We hit .375 as a team in the final set and our middles (Poole-four blocks and Rachel Wenger-three blocks) did a great job getting their hands on Trinity's attack to slow them down.  Our defense gave us quality second chances."

The Eagles will take on Birmingham Southern in their first game tomorrow before taking on Emory in the much-anticipated finale.