HARRISONBURG, Va.– Eastern University Volleyball hit an impressive .353 as a team on the way to an efficient three-set road win over the Eastern Mennonite University Royals. Logan Martin led the Eagles with 12 kills and four blocks.

Scoring at least one point on each of their first five servers, the Eagles (19-3) built an early 16-9  lead in the opening set. In that run, the  match was close at 11-9. Lexi Couch put away a transition kill off a pancake dig from Trinity Gruber to give the Eagles some momentum. Viviana Fragoso put together a second scoring run for a 21-12 lead, and the Eagles were able to earn sideout points for the 25-17 win. Bridgette Kelly and Martin each had four kills in the first set.

Even as the Eagles were successful on 12 of their first 13 sideout chances in the second set,  the host Royals kept things close with solid serve-receive. Grace Casagrande put together a four-point run for a 22-15 lead. The two teams traded sideouts to the finish. Eastern hit .414 with 16 kills in winning the second set 25-18. Elle Jiron Bujanda had 11 assists and four kills in the frame.

The Royals (10-15) built an early lead in the third, but Kelly and Fragoso pt together serving runs to put Eastern up 13-10. The set stayed tight until 15-13. Jiron-Bujanda, Gruber, and Kelly all opened serving runs with aces and the Eagles closed out the match with a 25-17 final-set win.

Kelly had eight kills, three aces, and a couple blocks. Martin hit .526 for the match, and Hannah Pringle hit .421 with nine kills. Casaagrande finished with a match-best 16 digs.

"It was a night where our offense really allowed us to stay ahead," Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said/. "Our middle attack was excellent out of serve receive and in transition. I think we all agree that we will look to raise our level of defensive effort the remainder of the weekend."

The Eagles will play two matches at Washington and Lee University tomorrow. They will play Shenandoah at 1:30 and the host Generals at 4:00 pm.