ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Through the year, Saturday morning matches have not been a favorite for Eastern University Volleyball. Though 2-1 in early Saturday matches, the team had struggled to get execute early and had to grind through each match. With a commanding three-set win over Haverford, the Eagles took step toward reversing that trend.

The Eagles hit a stunning .789 and were perfect in serve receive in cruising to a 25-5 first-set win. With the Eastern hitters dominating, the Fords saw only three balls hit the floor in the opening set. Grace Casagrande had five of her 13 digs in the opening set, and the Eagles had 14 as a team.

Logan Martin had four kills and a pair of blocks in a 25-9 win in the second set. With the big Eastern block in their way, the Fords hit -.296 in the set and again saw only three balls hit the floor on the other side of the net.

Hannah Pringle put down five of her match-high 11 kills in the Eagles' 25-14 third-set win. The Eastern lead stood at 12-9 when Viviana Fragoso stepped back to the service line. The sophomore defensive specialist served three-straight points to give the Eagles a margin to work with, Bridgette Kelly served the last five points of the match for the Eagles.

The Eagles hit .425 for the match. Martin hit .500 with eight kills and four blocks and Kelly hit .636 with seven kills and four blocks.  Elle Jiron-Bujanda 31 assists and a pair of blocks.

"We played really well," Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said after the game. "[The] Most important play of the game is the first play. Their big lefty has that big swing, and Casa picks it up and we score in transition. We have been talking a lot about keeping energy consistent and working to raise the bar. We kept after things and did not let the ball drop. Our effort was really good. We did a good job all day."

The win in the opening match snapped a four-match losing streak against their Main Line rivals. Haverford beat the Eagles twice in 2019 and twice in 2021.

The Eagles (12-2) overpowered Penn State Berks in the final match of the day. Casagrande, the only starter to go the distance, finished with a match-high 23 digs. The Eagles hit .360 in the match. Kyra Kisting set the final two sets and finished with 20 assists. Jailene Lugo had eight kills and Lexi Couch had seven. Kelly came out of the match with Eastern up 20-3 in the opening set. The junior middle had six kills and four blocks.

With an important league game at Widener and a pair of matches against top teams in New York, Eastern has a big week ahead.