ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Volleyball rallied from down a pair of sets, but fell in five to the visiting DeSales University Bulldogs in a game for control of the MAC Freedom standings. This is the first regular season conference loss for Eastern Women's Volleyball since 1999.
The Eagles fell behind 20-14 in the opening set but rallied to tie the set at 24-24 before the Bulldogs scored the final two points to claim the opening set. Eastern hit only .209 in the set.
Eastern built a 21-16 lead in the second set, before the Bulldogs battled back to tie the set at 23-23. DeSales had a set point at 24-23 before Eastern scored two points in a row to earn a set point. The Eagles had several chances to serve for the set, but neither team was able to close the door until DeSales scored on consecutive kills from Noel Kelly to go up a pair of sets.
Head Coach
Mark Birtwistle inserted
Morgan Kline into the match in the third set. The sophomore had been out with injury for much of the season thus far.
The Eagles responded with convincing wins in the third and fourth sets. The Eagles hit .375 in the third and .265 in the fourth to win 25-14 and 25-18 and to set up the team's fifth winner-take-all set this season. The Eagles were 1-3 in five-set matches coming in, and early troubles serving and in serve receive put the team behind early.
Eastern trailed 8-3 when the teams switched sides. The hosts trimmed the deficit to 9-7 on
Cecilia Bauer's serve, but DeSales earned two points on serve to pull away to a 13-8 lead.
"DeSales played a great match." Birtwistle said after the match. "They won a lot of the effort plays. I thought we played very well in the sets we won, and we controlled the tempo. As we begin to limit our unforced errors we will put ourselves in the right position."
Caroline Shelby had a match-high 20 kills and
Ally Spillane added a career-high 19.
Michelle Paulsen ahd 14 kills and three blocks.
Miranda Kauffman had 19 digs.
Dating back to October of 2000, Eastern had won 19 consecutive matches against DeSales. The two schools had met in eight of the nine MAC Freedom Championship games since Eastern joined the league. The Eagles had never lost to a conference opponent since joining the MAC in 2008.
The Eagles (9-7, 2-1 MAC Freedom) will host Juniata on Friday and Messiah and Rowan on Saturday.
