PURCHASE, N.Y.– Eastern University Volleyball earned a three-set win at Manhattanville College. Michelle Paulsen finished with 11 kills on 19 attacks to pace the Eastern attack

The Valiants (10-4, 2-2 MAC Freedom) had won four straight matches coming into this match, and that confidence showed early The home team scored five of the first six pointsand forced Eastern University Head Coach Mark Birtwistle into an uncharacteristic early timeout.

"Sometimes you need to weather the runs teams are going to throw at you," Birtwistle said after the match. "We had to keep things simple and earn some defensive points. . Eventually we started defending their middle well. We served much better tonight. Michelle [Paulsen] was solid in the middle for us,  and they didn't have an answer for her."

His team responded. The Eagles scored four consecutive and fourteen of the next sixteen points to grab control of the first set. Caroline Shelby had five of her ten kills in the opening set. The Eagles had 18 kills in the first set on the way to a 25-18 win.

The Eagles (12-8, 3-1 MAC Freedom) ground their way through the second set. Eastern hit .267 in the frame, but the scrappy Valiants kept points alive and tied the set at 21-21 on a kill Asia-Morgohn Reid kill. Shelby put away a kill for the sideout, and then the Eagles were able to earn three points on Sydney MacDonald's serve. Morgan Shemonski had the final two kills to secure a 25-21 result.

The Eagles scored seven of the first eight points in the third set and never looked back on the way to a 25-15 win in the final set. Shelby closed out the match with her tenth kill of the match. With Morgan Kline running the offense, six different Eagles recorded multiple kills and the team hit .333 in the final set. Kline finished with 40 assists.

Miranda Kauffman led the Eastern defense with 15 digs, and Ally Spillane again recorded double-figure kills with ten.

Eastern will play Neumann on Friday night at Swarthmore College.