ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Women's Volleyball secured the top seed in the upcoming MAC Commonwealth Tournament with a three-set win over the visiting Hood College Blazers. The Eastern program honored seniors Elle-Jiron Bujanda, Grace Casagrande, and Jailene Lugo before the match.

While they still have a league match at Alvernia next week, tonight's home win secured at least a tie for the league's regular-season championship. With their win at Owings Mills last week, the Eagles hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Stevenson.

As they have throughout the season, the Eagles (18-3, 6-0) started from ahead. They won the opening set 25-14.  Eastern had won the first set in 16-consecutive matches before dropping the opening frame at Stevenson last week. The Eagles led only 11-10 early on, but a big run with Casagrande at the service line broke the game open. The Eagles were successful on four of their last five sideout chances in the frame.

Bridgette Kelly had four kills and a block, and the Eagles hit .292 with six aces in the first.

The Blazers were able to serve for points in the second and led 16-14. Hannah Pringle put away a kill for a sideout and Jiron-Bujanda served the Eagles into the lead at 18-16. The Eagles were able to execute serve-receive offense for sideouts and got scoring runs with Trinity Gruber and Kelly at the service line. Pringle had four kills in the set and Lugo put away three balls. Casagrande had six of her 11 digs in the second set.

After scuffling a little through the first two sets, the Eastern offense hit .545 to claim the third set 25-8. Jiron-Bujanda had 12 of her 30 assists in the set and Viviana Fragoso had five digs Logan Martin and Lexi Couch each converted all three of their attacks.

Pringle led the Eastern attack with 11 kills. Martin hit .750 with six kills, and Kelly hit .545 with seven kills.

The team honored its three seniors before and after the match.

Jiron-Bujanda, an Exercise Science Major from Denver, Colo., has started at setter in each of her three seasons. She was the 2022, MAC Commonwealth Player of the Year and earned All-America recognition from the AVCA. She leads the MAC Commonwealth in assists per set and is just short of 2500 career assists.

Lugo, a right-side from East Petersburg, Pa., is averaging a career-best 1.86 kills per set. She was the 2021 MAC Commonwealth Tournament MVP. She is an outstanding student who is studying early childhood education.

Casagrande was the 2022 MAC Commonwealth Defensive Player of the Year. She is a three-year starter at the libero spot and is on pace to average 500 digs per year. She leads the MAC Commonwealth in digs per set and has had double-figure digs in every match this season. She is a Educational Studies major.

Though tonight wrapped up the regular-season home slate, the Eagles still have seven matches left before the post-season starts on Nov. 8. The team will play three matches in Virginia this coming weekend and will have matches at Alvernia, Elizabethtown, and Stockton next week. Eastern's opponent for the 8th is still too be determined.