WASHINGTON, D.C.– Eastern University Women's Volleyball capped the weekend with a pair of wins at the Worthington Classic hosted by Gallaudet University. The Eagles battled through a four-set marathon with Catholic (2-12) in the morning game before handling former MAC Freedom rival DeSales in three sets in the afternoon.
Logan Martin had 31 kills on the day and hit .441 to pace the Eastern attack against DeSales.
Eastern played the host Bison in the late game Friday and came back for a 9 am start against a Catholic squad that was able to sleep in their own beds the night before. Despite a huge differential in records, the Cardinals gave the Eagles all they could handle. Eastern rallied late in the first set to win 25-22, but was unable to convert a 22-21 lead late in the second. Eastern trailed 21-18 before a side-out and three service points from
Trinity Gruber, but after a timeout, the Cardinals scored the final four points of the set to level the match.
The Eagles allowed only seven Catholic kills in the set on the way to a 25-17 win in the third.The final set ended with a side-out battle. The two teams were knotted at 18-18. After a side-out on a kill from
Bridgette Kelly, the Eagles socred a point on Gruber's serve to go up 20-18. That lead would prove to be enough as the two sides traded side-outs to the finish line.
Martin had 14 kills and
Rachel Curran finished with 12, but the real story of the opening match was the defense. Led by 24 digs from
Grace Will and 22 digs from Gruber, the Eastern defense picked up 113 balls. The serve receive allowed only three Catholic aces.
While the Eastern-Catholic match put the day behind schedule, the contest between DeSales and Gallaudet took delays to another level all together. The two teams battled for nearly two and a half hours through a five-set marathon. The Bulldogs came out on top with a 15-10 win in the final set, and the match between DeSales and Eastern started just a few minutes before the scheduled start time of the fourth match of the day.
The Eagles jumped to an early lead and played from ahead for nearly the entire match against DeSales. After winning the first set 25-20, the Eagles jumped out to a 15-6 lead in the second set and stretched the lead to 24-9 before DeSales scored six in a row to fix the optics. Martin ended the set with her fifth kill of the frame. The Eagles won the second convincingly despite hitting only .200 in the set.
They changed that in the third. A six-point run with
Kelsey Bradshaw at the service line got things started. DeSales scored just three points on serve in the set, and the Eagles hit .500 with 16 kills. Martin terminated nine balls in the final set. She finished with 17 kills on 34 attacks. Kelly also was very efficient in the match. The first-year middle had ten kills without an error and a .455 hitting percentage.
Elle Jiron-Bujanda had 32 assists and 13 digs. Will led the Eagles with 14 digs.
"The team won from behind, won from ahead, and had to figure out a lot of different types of hitters," Head Coach
Mark Birtwistle said after the match. "Overall, this was a good weekend of learning.
Grace Will had a solid weekend at the libero position with 59 digs in three matches. SHe brought good energy to the court. "
The Eagles enter a stretch with some time for teaching and recovery. They will play Hood at home on Tuesday and then will have just a single league match at Widener on Oct. 6 before Homecoming Weekend. That weekend will be a big one for Birtwistle who will be inducted into Eastern's Hall of Honor on Sunday Oct. 10. He will become the first active coach inducted into Eastern's Hall of Honor. With the four wins this week, Birtwistle has 770 career wins.
