ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Less than 12 hours after a heartbreaking five-set loss to the No. 14 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, Eastern University Volleyball was back on the court again for a morning match against The Washington & Lee Generals. After dropping the opening set, the Eagles won the next three on the way to a pair of home wins. The Eagles (12-3) beat the Widener Pride in three sets in the final match of the weekend.
How it Happened:
The Eagles scored only three points on serve in dropping the opening set against the Generals (5-7), but seven of Eastern's first eight servers served for at least a point in building an early lead in the second set.
Cecilia Bauer had seven digs in the second set and the Eagles evened the match with a 25-17 win.
The third set was the critical moment of the day. The Eagles trailed 22-17 late in the set before earning one point back on a serve from
Katie Stenby. The Generals earned a sideout to move closer to taking a 2-1 lead in the match.
Caroline Shelby put down a kill to close the gap to 23-20, but the Eagles would need to find some points on serve to claim the set. Bauer stepped to the service line and delivered. The junior libero served aggressively and the Eagles took advantage with a run of four points to go up 24-23.
After the teams traded sideouts, the Generals scored on serve to claim the upper hand. Eastern fought off five consecutive set points before Bauer Served for the final two points of the set. She delivered an ace for the final point and a 32-30 win. She finished the match with 20 digs, and had 56 total digs on the weekend. She has 269 digs through 15 matches.
Sarah Roberts had the final two kills of the set for Eastern. The senior middle had six kills in the set and a match-high 16. Morgan Kiline had 14 of her 46 assists in the third set.
The Eagles broke open a 12-12 game with a run of five points with Kline at the line in the fourth set. She had a pair of aces in that run. Up 18-12, The Eagles only needed to sideout the rest of the way to win the match. Washington and Lee scored only one more point on serve and the Eagles closed out the morning with a 25-17 win.
Caroline Shelby had 15 kills and
Michelle Paulsen had ten kills and eight blocks. With her 17 blocks this weekend, Paulsen now has 498 rejections in her career. She became Eastern's career leader in that category earlier in the week.
The Eagles scored the final three points of the set to claim a 25-23 win over Widener in the opening set. The Eagles hit .325 in the second set and a stunning .696 in the third to pull away to the three-set win. Shelby had 13 kills, but it was the senior middles who owned the final two sets. Kline found bother Roberts and Paulsen, and the Pride did not have an answer. Paulsen hit .455 with 11 kills and Roberts hit .533 with ten kills. Kline finished the match with 37 assists.
Coach Birtwistle Says:
"Good teams are able to come off an emotional game and execute efficiently the next day. It took us a little time to get there, but eventually we did. Coming back from five points down late in the third set was a big turning point. Both our middles did a nice job blocking and attacking. Overall they added 33 total points and that is enough to keep other teams guessing. Cecilia continues to lead our defense and serve receive. Our defense was a key to the win this morning. We had four players in double-digit digs in the match."
"It was nice to come out after a long break and put some pressure on Widener. They are an improved team, but we were able to keep them out of system with good serving. We had a couple of good defensive stands. After the first set, the offense got going with our middles, and Caroline also joined in with with some quality kills."
Up Next:
The Eagles will host King's College on Wednesday at seven. With only two matches over the next 12 days, the Eastern team will look to get healthy for three tough weekends in October.
