GRANTHAM, Pa.- A short-handed Eastern University Volleyball squad split two matches at the MAC Crossover Tournament hosted by Messiah College. Eastern dropped the morning match to the hosts in five before recovering to put Widener away in three quick sets.

Eastern cruised to a pair of quick victories in the first two sets of the Messiah match, but the host Falcons took advantage of eight Eastern hitting errors and several other miscues to take the third set 27-25. Eastern led 23-21 in the closely contested set and was up 25-24, but the Eagles were unable to close the match.

Inspired their success in the third set, Messiah pressed the No. 19 Eagles out of the gate in the fourth. The Falcons built a 16-7 lead and held on as the Eagles hit -.061 in the set.

Eastern started slowly in the fifth set as well, but the Eagles rallied to close the gap and had match point at 16-15 before Messiah reeled off three straight points to take the win. Katrina Pisch finished the match with 16 kills and a .378 hitting percentage to lead the Eagles.

After losing the morning match, the Eagles did not mess around against the Widener Pride. The Eastern attack was firing from the start as the team hit .385 in the first set and an astounding .609 in the second. The third set featured more long rallies and dropped Eastern's hitting percentage to .283 for the afternoon. Erin Hillman pounded out 15 kills with only three errors and Pisch had 11 kills on 23 swings.

Eastern (18-4) will hope to get healthy as the team enters a spell with just one game, a road test at Misericordia on Wednesday in a 10 day stretch.

Messiah Box
Widener Box