ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– After winning two league matches midweek, Eastern University Women's Volleyball capped the regular season with a pair of home wins. The Eagles (21-5) opened with a four-set win over the Cortland Red Dragons in the morning, and finished in the afternoon with a three-set win over Eagle Road rival Cabrini Cavaliers.
Grace Casagrande finished the day with 39 digs in seven sets.
The day promised to be a good test as each of the three teams are the top seeds in their upcoming league tournaments. Cortland (19-5) is unbeaten in the SUNYAC, and Cabrini did not lose in the Atlantic East.
Ellie Jiron-Bujanda closed out the fourth set in the opening match with three consecutive aces. The strong finish at the service line came in a set that saw both teams committing uncharacteristic serving errors. The Eagles had only six kills, but kept balls alive to earn a 25-21 win for the match.
In the first set of that match, the Eagles jumped to a 16-9 lead and still led 21-14, but Cortland closed the gap with a late five-point run before the Eagles finished with a 25-21 win.
Kaylyn Zeigler had four kills to lead an Eastern attack that had four other hitters hit .167 in the frame.
The Eagles won the second set by an identical 25-21 margin. Up 17-9, the Eagles again hit a couple rough stretches that allowed the Red Dragons back into the frame. The Eastern passers settled in late and the Eagles were successful on their final three sideout chances to go up 2-0 in the match. Eastern hit just .057 in the set, but that proved to be enough to grab control of the match.
Cortland led wire-to-wire in the third set and won, 25-20. Casagrande had nine digs in the set, but the Eastern offense was not able to create enough out of system points to earn the sweep.
Peyton Wheeler led a balanced attack with eight kills.
Bridgette Kelly,
Logan Martin, and
Hannah Pringle each finished with seven kills. Kelly had four blocks, while the other two had three. Jiron-Bujanda finished with 32 assists and four aces.
The Eagles took on Cabrini (18-11) after the Cavaliers fell in three to Cortland. In the early going, it looked like it might be a lopsided match. The Eagles were flawless in their execution early and jumped out to a 15-3 lead. While the Cavaliers grabbed a few points back, the opening set looked fairly resolved when the Eagles scored a point on Jiron-Bujanda's serve to go up 22-10.
The Cavaliers then scored 12 of the next 13 points to pull within a point at 23-22. The Eagles managed to side out for a 25-23 win, but it became clear that Cabrini would not go away without a fight.
The second set was a defensive battle. Both teams had 25 digs in a frame where each team had only one three-point lead. The Cavaliers led 4-1 early, and then neither team led by more than two points until Jiron Bujanda closed out the set with her fourth ace of the set. Desptie hitting just .118, Eastern won 25-22.
Logan Martin had two kills and three blocks in the set.
Hannah Pringle pounded out seven kills and hit .4672 in the third to help the Eagles close out the match with a 25-17 win. Jiron Bujanda had 14 assists, six digs, and an ace in the set. The decisive run in the set came when the Eagles held a 12-9 lead. With Pringle leading the way, the Eagles scored seven of the next eight points. The first-year outside hitter had four kills and a block in the run.
The teams traded sideouts down the stretch before Pringle finished the match with a solo block. Martin had seven kills and four blocks and hit .500 in the match. Jiron-Bujanda had 35 assists, 12 digs, and seven aces. Casagrande had 14 digs.
With the regualr season complete, the Eagles now prepare for the MAC Commonwealth Tournament. On Wednesday, Nov. 2, Eastern will host the winner of the Monday's opening round match between the fourth-seeded Messiah University Falcons and the fifth-seeded Lebanon Valley College Dutchmen.
