FREDERICK,Md.–On their longest league road trip of the year,  Eastern University Women's Volleyball got off to a slow start, but the Eagles (13-5, 4-0) finished well on the way to an efficient three-set win over the host Hood College Blazers. Eastern hit .310 on the night and served 19 aces. Bridgett Kelly had six kills, seven aces, a pair of blocks to lead the Eagles.

The Blazers (7-12, 1-3) came into the match on the heels of a five-set win over Alvernia in their last MAC Commonwealth match. The hosts scored seven of the first fifteen points of the match, but the Eagles closed out the opening set on a 17-3 run and won the opening set 25-10, Hood scored just twenty more points in the final two sets.

The Eagles were successful on five consecutive sideout chances to close the opening set and the serving of Kelly, Trinity Gruber, Viviana Fragoso, and Grace Casagrande had the hosts out of system throughout. Casagrande served a pair of aces and Kelly cleaned up with a pair of kills and a block in a nine-point run to get to set points. The Eagles hit .267 with only 12 kills in the opening frame.

The Blazers scored the first point of the second set, but Hannah Pringle put away four consecutive kills to spark a 13-to-2 run and grab control of the second set. Grace Cooper served a pair of aces in the opening run. Led by Kelly' with five aces in nine attempts, the Eagles had eight aces in winning the second set 25-9. Pringle had five of her eight kills in the second set.

Head Coach Mark Birtwistle adjusted the line-up for the third set, and the Eagles had their only rough stretch in serve-receive early in the third. The Blazers served for three-straight points to close the Eastern lead to 7-6. The Eastern servers were dominant over the closing points of the set to win 25-11. Natalie Saxton served the final two points of the set. Jailene Lugo had a kill to set up match point, and Saxton delivered an ace to end the match.

With Kallie Rogers and Taylor Stone sharing setting duties, the Eagles hit .360 in the final set. Fragoso had all three of her aces in the final set. Grace Casagrande finished with a match-best 14 digs. McKenzie Boyer finished with seven kill on only 13 swings. Kelly

With a good presence at the net and solid play behind, the Eastern defense held Hood to a -.037 hitting percentage. No Hood player finished with more than four kills. Hood had just one ace in the match.

"Our passing was solid," Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said. " our offense to score. We were right at 70 percent on sideout chances for the night. We also scored off our serve. We scored  73% of our serves tonight. Kenzie hit over .300 for the second game in a row."

The Eagles will head to Boston for two matches at MIT on Saturday. They will play WPI in their first match and finish with a test against the fourth-ranked hosts. MIT is one of three remaining unbeaten teams in the Division III National poll.

The Eagles will return to league play with a home test against Alvernia University on October 23.