ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Volleyball needed four closely-contested sets to pick up a critical MAC Commonwealth win over the visiting Messiah University Falcons (13-2, 3-1). Hannah Pringle had 19 kills and Grace Casagrande recorded 25 digs to lead the Eagles in the win.

The Eagles (10-3, 3-0)  hit .333 in the opening two sets and pulled away to 25-17 and 25-19 wins. They built a 16-10 lead in the third and appeared to being pulling away. The Falcons, however, had other plans. They scored on consecutive servers and trimmed the Eastern edge to 17-14. When the Eagles were able to side out on consecutive opportunities, it looked as though they might be able to close out the match in three.

The momentum of the set, however, turned on a seven-point Messiah run. Messiah junior Mackenzie Feight had three kills and a block in the burst which put the visitors up 22-19.

Eastern earned a sideout and then picked up three points with Kaylyn Zeigler at the service line. Logan Martin and Bridgette Kelly combined on a block for the first point, Elle Jiron-Bujanda placed a perfect overhead shot on second contact to tie the score. Martin converted a kill to put the Eagles up. The two teams traded sideouts all the way to 29-29 before the Falcons scored on a kill from Feight and an attack error to win 31-29.

The Eagles started the fourth set well and were up 12-8 when the Falcons put together another big run. Feight again led the run with four kills in the six-point burst. Neither team was able to find any separation and Kelly put away a ball for a sideout  to tie the set at 21-21 and send Viviana Fragoso to the service line. Kelly and Pringle combined on a block for a one point lead. Fragoso then served three-consecutive aces to close the match. After driving balls deep on the first two, the rookie defensive specialist spun the third serve off the tape for the win.

Kelly had four kills and two blocks in the fourth set. She finished with ten kills, six blocks, and and ace. She hit .417 for the match. Natalie Saxton only got three swings in the fourth, but she put away two of them for kills. For the match, she hit .471 with nine kills, and three blocks. Jiron-Bujanda finished with 46 assists and 17 digs. Feight led the Falcons with 20 kills.

"This was a big win for us," Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said after the game. "They are a good team and they will keep coming at you. We won the first two sets there last year, and they beat us in five. I thought we did a really good job of working ourselves out of a couple rough spots early. That was something we were not able to do on the weekend. Our DS's were really good in that."

"We got away from some of the stuff that was working in the third," he continued. "Our middles were very involved in the offense in the first two sets, and we got away from that. They only had one kill between them in the set. We were able to balance out our attack in the fourth. Viviana stepped up and hit some big serves in a big moment. They [Messiah] are a good team. It was important for us to be able to rebound like we did in the fourth set."

The Eagles are off until next Wednesday when they will host Alvernia at 7:00 pm.