ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa.- Eastern University Volleyball earned a pair of wins over University Athletic Association opponents in the opening night of the Days Inn Invitational at Elizabethtown College. The Eagles, ranked 15th in the most recent AVCA poll, topped No. 22 Carnegie Mellon (12-1) in three sets in the 6:30 match and beat Rochester (9-3) in the second match of the evening.

The Eagles handed the Tartans their first loss of the year in a three-set battle that was as close as a three set match could be. Head Coach Mark Birtwistle was pleased with his team's execution on offense and on defense.

"Judging from the teams hit percentages you'd think it wasn't much of an offensive battle, but it was," he said. "Both teams dug and blocked and played very sound volleyball. Each team pushed each other to make plays. In games like these, it is only a slight margin of difference, and we earned the right points at the right time."

The Eagles won each of the first two sets 25-23 and rallied from an early four point deficit to win the third set 25-22.

Junior outside hitter Stephanie Elechko led the Eagles with 11 kills. Alicia Weigel had eight kills with a very efficient .304 hitting percentage. Morgan Shemonski had nine kills and four blocks.

Erin Hillman had all three of her kills in the second half of the third set to help finish off the match. Birtwistle pointed to the play of his middles in establishing a block and picking up key kills in the attack. Rylie Haas led the Eagles with 16 digs in the opening match.

The Eagles sustained their offensive pressure and put Rochester on their heels at the start the 8:30 match. Birtwistle noted that the offensive pressure was a direct result of solid passing and defense. He cited the play of Haas, Lauren Horst and Alexis Harbold in helping to get the Eagles off to a strong start. Out of the gate, Eastern hit .414  won the opening set 25-14.

The hitting cooled off a little in the second set, but Eastern's front row did all it could to keep Rochester from getting anything going. The Eagles started teh second set with three consecutive blocks. Hillman recorded the first one and Kaitlyn Gochenauer and Shemonski combined on the next two. Eastern took the second set 25-17. The Eagles rode that momentum to a 25-18 third set win.

Weigel tied her career high with 18 kills. The junior hit a very efficient .432 in the second match. Shemonski was also outstanding with a .571 hitting percentage and nine kills.  After not gettting much of a chance to block in the midweek match, Michelle Paulsen collected another 4 blocks. The first-year middlle hitter is, according to Birtwistle, starting to find her offensive form as well.

"Rikki Shlager is really doing a great job of implementing some technical things we added this week." Birtwistle noted. "She is delivering quality sets at the right time and giving out hitters the opportunity to terminate." The senior All-American setter had 33 assists in the firt match and 36 in the second.

Haas had 14 digs in the second match to move into fourth place on the career digs list with 1491. The junior All-American moved past recent Eastern Hall of Honor inductee Erin Meredith.

The Eagles will play McDaniel and the host Blue Jays tomorrow at Elizabethtown High School.