BOSTON- Eastern University Volleyball spent a lot of time on the court this weekend at the UMass Boston Beacon Invitational. After a pair of marathon matches yesterday, the Eagles played two extended matches today as well. The Eagles dropped a tough four set match to third ranked Christopher Newport University in the afternoon and had to battle back from two sets down to beat the host Beacons in five in the tournament finale.

The first game against CNU went very well for the Eagles. The Eagles took care of the ball and held the Captains to .028 hitting in the opening set. The Eagles hit only .189 but pulled away to a 25-18 first set win. The Captains then showed why they are ranked in the top five nationally with an impressive offensive display over the final three sets of the match.

The Eagles had a strong presence at the net against CNU, and combined on 11 blocks. Michelle Paulsen continues to impress at the net. She had a match-high 7 blocks. Stephanie Elechko recorded a career-high 18 kills in the contest. Head coach Mark Birtwistle noted that the junior is really learning a new position this season and is putting up impressive numbers in several matches against top teams.

"We pushed CNU to the end but came up a little short to a very strong team." Birtwistle noted, " We need to continue to get better passing and serving and make better decisions at times but we are also doing some nice things at this time of the year."

After a great start against the Captains, the Eagles stumbled out of the gate against the host Beacons (1-7) Eastern dropped the first two sets and trailed 17-15 in the third. The third set was a struggle against a scrappy Beacon defense. The hosts extended each rally and forced the Eagles to win points. It seemed that Eastern finally turned the tide on thre consecutive points to grab a 20-18 lead. Erin Hillman tied the set at 18 with a kill and then Morgan Shemonski and Paulsen provided on a big double block for the lead. Shemonski then made it 20-18. the sophomore opposite led the Eagles with 16 kills against UMass Boston.

The Beacons battled back to tie the set at 22,23, and 24 on extended rallies before the Eagles earned two points on Beacon mistakes to claim the third set.

With momentum shifted, Eastern cruised to a 25-15 win in the fourth set. Kaitlyn Gochenauer had the final two kills to close out the set.

At that point, it certainly seemed that the tide had completely turned and that the fifth set would go to the Eagles. The hosts, however,had other plans. The Beacons led from the start of the third set and eventually built a 14-11 lead.

Erin Hillman found an open spot for a kill to sideout. The senior outside hitter then recorded another kill and an ace to tie the set at 14-14. Shemonski and Paulsen combined on an important double block to put the Eagles up and Paulsen then joined with Alicia Weigel for another block and the win.

Lauren Horst (14 digs), Miranda Kauffman (12 digs), and Alexis Harbold (11 digs) joined Rylie Hass (20 digs) and Rikki Schlager (13 digs, 43 assists) in double figures for digs in the match.

Hillman and Gochenauer joined Shemonski in double figure kills with 13 and 12. Paulsen finished with 8 blocks.

The Eagles have their home opener this Wednesday against Delaware Valley University.