ST. DAVIDS, Pa.—No. 12 Eastern University Volleyball held off the Susquehanna University Crusaders in a non-conference match on Friday night to wrap up the regular season with a 27-5 record.
The Crusaders (28-7) gave the Eagles a scare by taking the third set, but Eastern won the match in four sets 25-13, 25-21, 25-22, 29-27.
Eastern senior Katrina Pisch smashed a match-high 16 kills while hitting .438. Pisch came up big in the fourth and final set with six kills, including a kill to give the Eagles the lead back at 12-11 and also at 27-26. Fellow senior Lauren Sproles posted double-digit kills and digs, finishing with 13 kills and and 12 digs.
Erin Hillman pounded 14 kills while hitting .385, and Alicia Weigel added 10 kills, eight digs and four aces.
Defensively, the Eagles limited the Crusaders to a .150 hitting percentage for the match. Rylie Haas spearheaded the effort with 23 digs. Defensive specialists Miranda Kauffman and Lauren Horst added 10 and eight digs, respectively. Setter Rikki Schlager, who contributed nine digs, dealt out 52 assists (13 per set), 2.5 assists per set higher than her season average. Aided by good passing from the back row and Schlager's setting, the Eagles were able to hit .244 for the match.
Eastern cruised to a 25-13 first-set victory in which they hit .333 and contained the Crusaders a flat-line .000 hitting percentage.
The second set proved to be much tighter set with the score being tied at 10 different points before Eastern took the lead at 18-17 on a kill by Lauren Sproles. The Eagles stretched the lead to 22-18 on an ace by Schlager and held on for the 25-21 set win.
In set three, the Eagles trailed the entire set, a rare occasion this season. The Eagles pulled within one point at 23-22 on a kill by Erin Hillman, but the Crusaders scored the next two points to end the set at 25-22.
The Crusaders built a 10-6 lead in the fourth set, forcing the Eagles to take a timeout. Following the timeout, the Eagles were revived and posted a 10-1 run. However, the Crusaders caught the Eagles again at 18-18. The game proceeded to be tied eight more times. With the game knotted at 27-27, Schlager, well aware of a block about to form in front of Pisch, deftly dumped the ball over the net for the kill. After a long rally on the next play, the Crusader's tried to float a ball over the Eagles' wall, but the attack went out-of-bounds to secure the final set in Eastern's favor 29-27.
The Eagles move on to the Freedom Conference postseason as the top seed and will host the Wilkes University Colonels in the semifinal round on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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