STEVENSON, Md.– Eastern University Volleyball rebounded from a tough midweek loss with a pair of wins at Stevenson. The Eagles (9-2) cruised to an efficient three-set win over Rutgers-Camden before battling to a tough four-set victory over the host Mustangs.
Michelle Paulsen recorded 16 blocks in the two matches to become Eastern's career leader with 478 total rejections.
How it Happened:
The Eagles served aggressively against Rutgers-Camden and were able to keep the Scarlet Raptors out of system for the entire match. Eastern hit .444 in the opening set and were able to hideout at 75 percent on the way to a 25-8 opening set win.
While the offense slowed a little, the results of the next two sets were similar as the Eastern team was able to pass well enough to only allow Rutgers -Camden to score five points on serve for the final two sets. Paulsen had 11 kills to go with her nine blocks.
The second match featured the two teams that have controlled the opposite sides of the Middle Atlantic Conference in recent years. Stevenson (6-6) has won the last six MAC Commonwealth Championships and Eastern has ten-straight MAC-Freedom titles.
The Eagles grabbed an 11-5 lead early in the opening set on a strong run of serves from Paulsen. The Mustangs closed the gap to 22-19, but the Eastern passing proved solid and the teams traded saddest the rest of the way. The Eagles hit .282 in the opening set with thirteen kills and only two errors. Four different Eastern Players combined to score four points on blocks in the set.
Sammy Rogers and
Sarah Roberts each had solo blocks.
The second set belonged to the Eagles. The hosts were only able to score four points on serve, and two of those came after the Eagles had pulled out to a 20-12 edge. Eastern hit .333 in the set.
After dropping the third set, the Eagles rebounded to hit .244 in a 25-23 win in the final set.
Caroline Shelby delivered eight of her 19 kills in the final set. The sophomore standout only played the first set in the Rutgers-Camden match . She finished with 10 digs and a .289 hitting percentage for the match.
Morgan Kline had 37 assists and 17 digs while running the Eastern offense, and
Cecilia Bauer has 32 digs between the two matches while running the Eastern defense. Bauer, a junior libero has 194 digs through 11 matches and has been charged with only five receiving errors in her first year in the position.
Coach Birtwistle Says:
"It was a nice team win today against a solid Stevenson team. Both teams played well and made in-game adjustments on each other. Our passing was solid. That allowed us to hit .224 as a team and kept our middles as a viable threat.
"Michelle had a great day hitting .and she had big blocking day to break the career block record held by Kate Adams. Ce [Bauer] did a really nice job stabilizing our team in serve receive. That made a big difference for us today."
Up Next;
The Eagles are at Misericordia on Tuesday for a conference match. Johns Hopkins will be in Eastern's gym on Friday evening. The Eagles will host the nationally-ranked Blue Jays for their home opener. The night will be a turn-back-the-clock event with 80's music and prizes for those who come in apparel celebrating that era.
