ST. DAVIDS, Pa.—Eastern Volleyball collected its sixth consecutive Freedom Conference title on Saturday afternoon with a 25-17, 25-11, 25-13 win over the DeSales University Bulldogs.
The Eagles have now won 16 conference championships in the past 17 seasons.
Sophomore setter Rikki Schlager (Lititz, Pa./ Manheim Twp.) earned Freedom Conference Championship MVP honors. Schlager's passing game was superb; she found her teammates for kills on 39 of 87 passes. Schlager's 11.4 assists per set are still fourth best in the country.
Schlager's passing helped direct the Eagles' offense to a .360 hitting percentage Saturday (48 kills, 12 errors, 100 attacks). Eastern middle hitter Katrina Pisch (Blue Bell, Pa./ Merion Mercy) clubbed a team-best 11 kills while hitting .526. Her season average bumped up to .435, third best in the nation. Fellow middle hitter Stephanie Elechko (Lansdale, Pa./ North Penn) knocked down eight kills but also served six aces, a team-best this season.
Outside hitters Lauren Sproles (Lititz, Pa./ Warwick) and Erin Hillman (Allentown, Pa./ Parkland) combined for 15 more kills and each hit over .300.
Defensively, Kearby Benak (Houston, Texas/ Langham Creek) added 13 digs and libero Rylie Haas (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom) added 10.
The Eagles showed they meant business right away, opening up with seven straight points before DeSales even got on the scoreboard. The Eagles increased their lead to 12-1 after Elechko served her third ace of the set. The Bulldogs then strung together a run of four straight points and eventually pulled within four points when Eastern had a 17-13 lead. The Eagles soon scored four points in a row including two more aces from Elechko. Erin Hillman gave the Eagles set point at 24-17 with a kill and then the Eagles took the first set on a DeSales' ball-handling error.
The second set started with DeSales taking a three-point lead, but Eastern caught up and took the lead at 8-7 with a Hillman kill. With Lauren Horst serving, the Eagles rallied to a 14-7 lead. An Elechko kill put the Eagles up 19–11 and then Benak served out the remainder of the set, giving Eastern the set 25-11.
The Eagles had a commanding lead for almost all of the third set and championship MVP Rikki Schlager fittingly finished the match with a fake-set hook that dropped right in the middle of DeSales' formation, giving Eastern the set at 25-13 and the championship win.
The Eagles have now beaten DeSales in the finals the past three seasons.
Eastern Volleyball enters the NCAA Tournament ranked second in the Mid-Atlantic region behind Juniata College. The NCAA will air its selection show on NCAA.com on Monday at 11 a.m., announcing where the regional tournament will be played and whom the Eagles next opponent will be. The regional tournament begins on Friday and will most likely be held at Juniata or at Stevenson University.
Box Score
Eastern University Volleyball Playoffs 2013 from Eastern University Athletics on Vimeo.
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