ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– It was not easy, but Eastern University Women's Volleyball secured a home match in the upcoming MAC Commonwealth Tournament with a five-set win over the visiting Widener University Pride. Hannah Pringle finished with a match-high 16 kills and Logan Martin added 13. Eastern need to win the final two sets to escape with the win.

The Pride (10-12, 3-3) entered the match having beat the Messiah University Falcons earlier in the year. With that win, the upstart Pride looked to sneak into a top-two spot in the league with an upset win at Eastern tonight.

That upset seemed improbable in a lopsided first set. While the Eagles cruised to a 25-15 win in the opening set, there were signs that things were not all working for the hosts. Eastern hit a negative number with 10 hitting errors in the first frame. Pringle had five first-set kills, but in her twelve total swings the first-year outside hitter also had five errors.

The Eagles jumped to an early lead in the second set but fell behind by four after a pair of Widener runs in the middle of the set. They still trailed 22-18 but fought back to tie the score and even served for the set at 24-23. The Pride, however, scored the final three points of the set to tie the match.

Leading 23-19, Eagles seemed to have things in hand in the third set, but the Pride scored the final six point of the set to put the Eagles down 2 sets to one.

The Eagles put together their best offensive set in the fourth. Hannah Pringle hit over .500 with six kills and the Eagles hit .258 as a team in the frame.

After jumping to a 5-1 lead in the fourth, the Eagles saw the Pride fight back to tie fifth set at 7-7. Grace Casagrande converted a sprawling save in the back corner to kill when her one-handed swipe found the line in the opposite corner. The Eagle lead grew to 10-7 with a block from Bridgette Kelly and Peyton Wheeler and a service ace from Casagrande. . The Eagles scored another two points on serve with Pringle's final kill of the night and a service ace from Viviana Fragoso. Kelly found the back corner with a kill to close the match.

Casagrande finished with a match-high 22 digs, and Elle Jiron-Bujanda had 46 assists. Fragoso had five aces and twelve digs.

The Eagles (14-5, 6-0) will play four matches in five days starting with a home match on Friday evening against Susquehanna. On Tuesday, they will host Stevenson at 7:00 pm with the top seed in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament on the line. The Mustangs are also unbeaten in the league and are 23-3 overall.