NEW YORK--The Eastern University Eagles took the first two matches Friday night of New York University's Violet Classic invitational volleyball tournament.

The Eagles improved to 13-1 on the year as they defeated Richard Stockton College 25-16, 25-17,25-22 and NYU 25-15, 25-9, 25-14.

According to head coach Mark Birtwistle, the Eagles used solid defense in both matches to power their offensive success against these two teams that were in the NCAA tournament last season. "We've been working on that specifically the last week or so--running our offense out of our digs," he said. "It all starts with our defensive effort."

Birtwistle noted libero Kelly Groff's effort on the back line. Groff recorded 17 digs against NYU and 12 against Stockton.

Despite traveling for several hours to get to the tournament, the volleyball team came out sharp, according to Birtwistle, especially against NYU. "Against NYU our team played the best they've played all year," he said. "NYU went to the elite eight last year, so we knew they were going to be a good team. We had a good fire in our eyes right from the beginning and played awesome and we took the game to them."

The Eagles defense shut down the NYU offense, holding them to a .047 hitting percentage. Eastern hit .398 for the match.

Courtney Reinhold hit .536 against NYU and recorded 17 kills in each match. 

Against Stockton, the third set went down to the wire, with the game tied at 21 but the Eagles pulled away. "They were winning most of that game," Birtwistle said, "but we came back and we sided out better than they did at the end."

Katrina Pisch recorded a career high 17 kills against Stockton, Kearby Benak added 10 kills and nine digs, and Maria Horning finished with 45 assists.

The Eagles take on Hunter College at noon Saturday and, for the second time this year, Gettysburg College, at 2 pm.