Huntingdon, Pa.– Eastern University Volleyball fell in three sets to the No. 7 Juniata College Eagles at Juniata. Eastern had an early lead in the third set, but the tough-serving hosts rallied from a 12-4 deficit to seal the match with a 25-21 win.

Top Performers:
Michelle Paulsen (6 kills, .385 Hitting, 5 aces) Sarah Roberts (6 Kills, .365 hitting)

How It Happened:
Juniata hit a blistering .467 to claim a 25-15 opening set win. The Eagles had a little run late in the set on Paulsen's serve, but the deficit was too great. The Eagles had a better start to the second set, and seemed to adjust to the aggressive serving, but the hosts took advantage of four-straight Eastern errors to build a 15-8 lead. The Eagles responded with four points on kills from four players to close the gap to 15-12, but the Juniata Eagles were able to sideout the rest of the set to go up 2-0 with a 25-19 win.

Eastern jumped to a 12-4 lead behind the serving of Paulsen and Lindsay Heisey in the third set, but the host Eagles responded with accurate and aggressive serving to close the gap. When the Eastern Eagles were able to set their middles, they were able to find success, but Juniata kept the pressure on to take away the Eastern middles, and the Eastern outside hitters had limited success against the big Juniata block. The hosts served six aces in the final set.

Coach Birtwistle Says:
"Our passing wasn't there tonight so our offense never got going. When we did pass, we were able to get our middles going and create some problems. Unfortunately we just weren't consistent enough tonight."

Up Next:
Eastern will play the University of Mary Washington Eagles tomorrow morning at 11 am and will play a rematch against the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays at 3 pm. Eastern lost to Hopkins in five sets at the end of September. Mary Washington beat Hopkins in four tonight.