LEXINGTON, Va.– Eastern University Women's Volleyball used a balanced attack and improved defense to pick up an impressive five-set win over the host Washington and Lee University Generals and complete their three-in weekend in Virginia.
Elle Jiron-Bujanda had 56 assists and 23 digs while helping the Eagles to hit .222 in the final match.
Coming off a three-set win over Shendoah earlier in the afternoon, the Eagles (21-3) dropped the opening set to the Generals and trailed 19-15 in the second set.
Lexi Couch recorded a kill for an important sideout point, and then
Bridgette Kelly served the Eagles into the lead. The junior middle hitter served an ace to pull the Eagles to within two. Another aggressive serve put the Generals out of system and
Logan Martin earned a point with a solo block. A second Kelly ace tied the set, and the Eagles took the lead on a kill from Couch. W & L briefly regained the lead at 22-21, but Couch put away a kill and the two teams traded sideouts until
Grace Casagrande served a pair of points for a 25-23 win to even the match.
Couch had six kills and Casagrande seven digs in the decisive set. Casagrande finished the match with 32 digs, and Couch posted a career-high 14 kills.
The two good teams traded points in the critical third set. W & L led 15-12, and then the match got tighter. Neither team had a three point lead the rest of the set. The Eagles pushed into a 16-15 lead on another service run from Kelly. Martin had a pair of kills in the three-point burst. The next two General servers scored single points and W & L had a 19-17 lead.
Couch stopped the run on an out-of-system kill before
Viviana Fragoso put the Eagles up two with a three-point run. With margins as tight as could be, the Generals looked to be in control when their libero earned a point on her serve and gave the hosts a chance to go up 2-1 in the match.
On set-point for the hosts
Jailene Lugo took shot at the back corner with a. Kill and hit both lines to tie the score at 24-24. With
Trinity Gruber serving, Couch put away a kill for a point, and Lugo ended the set with a second ball off a line. The Eagles had 19 kills in the third set. Jiron-Bujanda had 15 assists and nine digs in the critical frame.
W & L pulled away late in the fourth to set up a dramatic fifth set.
The Generals led by two early in the fifth, but the Eagles got points on serve from Casagrande, Gruber, Kelly, and
Grace Cooper to build a 10-7 lead. That three-point edge proved to be enough as the Eastern sideout game came through down the stretch.
Hannah Pringle put away the final three kills of the match for the Eagles. She finished with a team-high 18 kills. Martin had 17 kills and five blocks, Lugo finished with 10 kills and three blocks, and Kelly had nine kills, five blocks and four aces.
"[This was]A great team win against W&L!" Head Coach
Mark Birtwistle said after the match. "We knew we had to make some adjustments defensively and the team responded. The defensive effort both at the net and by our floor defense was what really helped turn the momentum to our favor. Casa posted another 30+ dig and our whole group worked to keep balls alive. We finished with 110 digs in the match."
"I thought Elle did a great job moving the ball around," he continued. "She was able to get all five hitters going." Jiron-Bujanda came into today two assists short of 2500 for her career. She recorded 90 total assists today.
The Eagles hit .312 as a team in the three-set win over Shenandoah. Lugo led the way with 10 kills. Kelly put away six balls and had four blocks. Jiron -Bujanda had 34 assists and 13 digs. With the Eastern block getting touches on nearly every swing, the Hornets (8-17) hit just .059 in the match.
The Eagles will finish their MAC Commonwealth schedule at Alvernia on Wednesday night before finishing the regular season with matches at Elizabethtown on Thursday and Stockton on Saturday. The Eagles are slated to host the loser of Wednesday night's match between Messiah and York in the opening round of the MAC Commonwealth tournament.
