ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– With a three-set win over the second-seeded Stevenson University Mustangs, Eastern University Women's Volleyball (27-3) earned a third consecutive MAC Commonwealth Championship.
Bridgette Kelly had nine kills, four blocks, and two aces and was named the Tournament MVP.
Today was the third time the two teams have met in St. Davids for the Championship game in the three years the Eagles have been in the MAC Commonwealth. The first two championship matches went five sets. Trailing 17-14 in the second set, the Eagles closed out the second set with an 11-6 run to grab control of the match. A 17-4 run to start the third set pretty much assured the outcome.
"Before the match," Head Coach
Mark Birtwistle said. "We shared the verse, 'the body has many parts, but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. No part is important on its own.' I think the team really responded, and we had players do their jobs and play well all over the court."
"We really wanted to serve aggressively to keep their middles out of the game," he continued. "She [Darian Dildy] is leading the country in hitting percentage, so we needed to limit her attacks. I think she probably only got about 10 sets in the match. They handled our serves pretty well when we played down there, so we worked very hard during the week on having confidence changing up some of our serving."
While the Eagles had five of their seven aces in the third set, it was their serving in the opening two sets that set the tone for the match. The Eagles kept Stevenson out of system and limited the Mustangs to 13-of-25 on sideout chances in the first set.
In the opening set, the Eagles passed with precision on the way to 13-of-18 on sideout chances.
Hannah Pringle had seven kills on 13 swings and the Eagles hit .314 to win 25-18.
Elle Jiron-Bujanda had 12 assists and
Grace Casagrande had seven digs.
The match turned late in the second set. The two teams traded points in the early going until it looked like the visitors had the upper hand when they went up 17-14 on a solo block from Haley Hoover. The Eagles scrambled for a sideout that ended with a
Jailene Lugo kill.
Grace Cooper went back to the serving line and put the pressure on with a variety of serves. The Eagles pulled to within a point on a solo block from
Logan Martin and then went up a point on a couple Stevenson errors on out-of-system points. The teams traded sideouts before
Viviana Fragoso delivered an ace for a 20-18 lead.
Stevenson tied the set twice before the Eagles took the lead for good at 23-22 on a block from Pringle and Kelly. With Jiron-Bujamda serving, Kelly brought the Eastern crowd to its feet with a kill for a 24-22 lead. The Mustangs earned a sideout, but Pringle pounded her fourth kill of the set to put the Eagles up 2-0.
The Eagles hit just .098 in the second, but they were able to keep points alive to gain the win.
"I thought our outsides did a good job of just keeping us in points there in the second set," Birtwistle said. "They were serving aggressively and we wound up out of system quite a bit. We got some critical blocks that helped as well."
Stevenson hit only .054 in the set.
The third set was all about serving. After the two teams traded sideouts to start, Casagrande served the Eagles to a 7-1 lead. After finally earning a sideout, the Mustangs scored a point on Kaela Vaeth's serve, but each of the next four Eastern servers would score at least one point.
Trinity Gruber had three aces in a seven-point run to force a second Stevenson timeout.
The Eagles built the lead to 22-9 before the Mustangs found some points to close the gap. Pringle finished a kill to put the Eagles to match point and with Jiron-Bujanda serving, Kelly finished the match.
Jiron-Bujanda had 38 assists and Casagrande had 17 digs. Vivana Fragoso had 13 digs. Pringle had 17 kills and three blocks, and Lugo hit .385 with six kills.
The Eagles stretched their season-best winning streak to 14 matches and will await word from the NCAA on the location and opponent for the first-round game in the NCAA Tournament.
"I don't know," Birtwistle answered when asked if he thought his team could get to 27-3 after starting the year 2-2. "We had 28 games on the schedule. I was thinking 20-8 or 21-7 would be pretty good. This group has come together really well, and I am proud of the way we have continued to get better and compete."
This is the 24th Conference Championship since 1997 and will be the program's 22nd trip to the NCAA Tournament. The 27 wins is the most since Eastern went 32-6 in 2016.
