ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Women's Volleyball stayed unbeaten in the MAC Commonwealth with a three-set home win over the Albright College Lions (3-3 1-1).
Rachel Curran led the Eastern attack with 13 kills.
Tonight's contest was the first meeting between the programs. Though the Eagles hit over .400 in the opening set, the Lions kept balls alive and took advantage of opportunities to keep the set close. Albright held a 19-18 lead before the Eagles scored seven of the final nine points of the set to pull away. Curran had the final two kills to finish with three in the frame, but the Eagles had multiple kills from five hitters as junior setter
Ashley Thorsted spread the ball around for 16 of her 38 assists.
Logan Martin had six kills and
Jailene Lugo put away four balls on only six attempts.
"I thought our passing was better tonight," Head Coach
Mark Birtwistle said after the game. "We have been working on passing, and we were able to bring our middles into the attack and side-out well. Jailene and Bridgette [Kelly] both finished with nine kills and hit over .400."
Aggressive serving in the second set lifted the Eagles to a 13-3 lead.
Trinity Gruber had three of her four aces in an eight-point run. Albright closed the gap to 13-7, but the Eagles were able to find efficiency in their side-out game and held on for a 25-15 win in the second. Curran had six kills and
Bridgette Kelly added four. The Eagles were 15-for-15 in serve-receive in the set and
Grace Casagrande picked up six of her match-high digs in the frame.
The Eagles fell behind 4-0 in the final set before serving runs from Thorsted and
Grace Will put them up 13-10. Both Thorsted and Will had a pair of aces in the final set. The Eagles grew their edge to 21-13 on a five-point run with Gruber at the service line and held on for a 25-16 win.
While Birtwistle was pleased with his team's passing, he still sees room for improvement in their serving game as they head into a weekend tournament at Gallaudet.
"We are living and dying in our serve," he said. "Right now we have too many service errors and are giving away too many points."
The Eagles will face the host Bison on Friday night and play Catholic in the morning before seeing a familiar foe in former MAC Freedom rival DeSales in the afternoon.
