ANNVILLE, Pa. – Eastern University Women's Volleyball opened the MAC Commonwealth schedule with a hard-fought four-set road win over the Lebanon Valley College Dutchmen (3-2, 0-2). The Eagles hit .262 for the match and had six players with four or more kills.

The Eagles won the opening two sets before dropping the third. The Eagles fixed their passing problems in the fourth set and did not fail a sideout chance on the way to a decisive 25-9 win. Eastern hit .364 and had three blocks in the decisive set.

Head Coach Mark Birtwistle and the Eagles were aware that the the improved Dutchmen team stretched Messiah to five sets in their league opener. Junior transfer Taylor McInerney had 32 kills in that match.

"We knew we were going to have to deal with her [ McInerney]," Birtwistle said.  We did an excellent job getting some digs, soft blocks, and even a few stuff blocks.  We were successful was our serve and pass game. Passing got away from us a bit in the third set but was really good in the fourth  It was a really good team win. Several players stepped up offensively and defensively. Elle was really consistent tonight spreading the offense around."

The Eagles started the fourth set with a sideout kill from Bridgette Kelly and went up 2-0 when Natalie Saxton pounded down an overpass on Kelly's serve. Five Eastern servers scored at least one point on each opportunity. That serving, combined with flawless sideout execution pushed the Eastern lead forward quickly. Trinity Gruber served an eight-point run take the Eagles to match point.

Led by four kills from Hannah Pringle and three from Kelly, the Eagles won the opening set 25-20.The Eagles hit .346 to win the second set 25-18.

In the third, the Dutchmen broke open a 13-12 set with a four-point surge. Twice, the Eagles closed the gap to two, but the Dutchmen held on to win 25-20.

Kelly and Kaylyn Zeigler each had eight kills with no errors. Zeigler finished hitting .421 with 12 digs. Kelly had four blocks, and five digs while hitting .500. Hannah Pringle had ten kills and two blocks.

Elle Jiron-Bujanda finished with 28 assists , and Grace Casagrande led the Eagles with 18 digs.

The Eagles (6-2, 1-0) will play a pair of non-league matches in Baltimore on Saturday.