READING, Pa.– Eastern University Women's Volleyball completed its unbeaten regular season run through the MAC Commonwealth with a three-set win at Alvernia. The Eagles hit .388 to secure the league's Regular Season Championship. The Eagles will host the fourth-seeded York College Spartans in next Wednesday's MAC Commonwealth Tournament Semifinal .
In the opening set, the Eagles (22-3, 7-0) pounded out 20 kills and were successful on 11-of-15 serve-receive opportunities. Despite serving ten times,
Bridgette Kelly put away six balls.
Hannah Pringle had five kills, and
Elle Jiron-Bujanda dished out 17 of her 28 assists in the first. The Eagles never trailed on the way to winning the first 25-15.
With Pringle pounding out six kills on six swings and
Logan Martin converting five out of six opportunities, the Eagles hit .500 on the way to a 25-16, second-set win. The host Golden Wolves scored the first point of the frame, but the Eastern offense took over and quickly pushed to a 23-11 lead. A late run closed the gap before Martin ended the set with a solo block.
Pringle was again dominant with seven more kills in the third. With first year setter
Kyra Kisting on to run the offense, the Eastern attack did not miss a beat. The Eagles hit .433 and used steady serving and good serve receive offense to ratchet their edge up as the set progressed. Kisting had 13 assists. The Eastern lead grew to 24-16 before a late Alvernia run closed the final margin to 25-19.
Pringle had 18 kills and hit 536, Martin had 10 kills and block, and Kelly hit .733 with 11 kills.
Grace Casagrande finished with a match-high 17 digs. The senior libero now has 477 this year ,In the third set, she surpassed 1500 for her career.
The Eagles will play at Elizabethtown tomorrow evening and will play matches against Neumann and Stockton at Stockton on Saturday before starting into the MAC Commonwealth Tournament next week.
At the same time Eastern is hosting York, second-seeded Stevenson will host Messiah in the other semifinal. Eastern and Stevenson have played in the last two MAC Commonwealth Championship matches. The Eagles won both those matches in five sets.
