ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Volleyball played at home for the first time this season and cruised to a 3-0 MAC Freedom win over the Misericordia University Cougars (9-5, 1-1 MAC Freedom). Led by Morgan Shemonski's 11 kills, the Eastern attack hit .381.

Coming into the match after a tough weekend at Stevens, the Eagles set the tone early with aggressive serving. Cecilia Bauer served three consecutive aces to put the Eagles up 4-1. The sophomore defensive specialist finished the first set with five aces, and the Eagles cruised to a 25-11 win.

"We want to be aggressive," Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said of his team's serving, "but we also want to put it in. It sounds like a contradiction, but we need to keep getting better at doing both." Led by Bauer's six, the Eagles finished with eleven aces in the match.

Caroline Shelby had five of her nine kills in the opening set. Even with the commanding point differential, Eastern hit only .250 in the first set.

Shemonski was flawless in the second set. The senior opposite put away all five of her attacks in the frame, and the Eagles pulled away to a 25-14 win in the set. Michelle Paulsen was nearly as good with four kills on five attacks.

"We have talked about trying to move the ball around," Birtwistle said. "Kylie did a good job getting the ball to different options. We have to pass well to do that. I thought Katie Stenby did a nice job in her role tonight passing and playing defense." Stenby finished with a team-high ten digs. Kylie McCusker finished with 32 assists.

Up two sets, the Eagles used a different line-up for the third set, but with the same result. Jasmine Kim played in the front row for Shelby and put down five kills on seven swings. Birtwistle was pleased with the first-year's aggressiveness at the net.

"We need to get her into some rotations," He said. "She was attacking balls tonight. It was good to see several players step up. Moriah Reid had three kills and four blocks. That was good for us." All seven first-year players saw the court in their first match at home.

Eastern led 19-15 when Shemonski put away a kill in transition and then Stenby served a pair of aces to force a Cougar timeout at 22-15. The two teams traded sideouts the rest of the way with the Eagles winning 25-18 on a Paulsen solo block. Paulsen has 60 blocks this year and 358 in her career.

Eastern remains unbeaten in MAC Freedom play and will play a pair of non-league games at Susquehanna on Saturday before hosting DeSales next Wednesday. Eastern and DeSales have played at Eastern in the MAC Freedom Tournament every year since Eastern joined the conference in 2008. In each of those seasons except 2010, the match was the Championship game.