ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– After over two hours on the court, Eastern University Women's Volleyball emerged with a five-set marathon win over the visiting Swarthmore College Garnet. Eastern (16-6)  got 24 kills from Hannah Pringle and a career-high 55 assists from Elle Jiron-Bujanda in claiming the non-league win over their local rival.

The Eagles, who have not lost a set in conference play, have not played a match longer than three sets since dropping a four-set decision to Christopher Newport on Sept. 20. It is the team's first five-set win since an opening-weekend win over Franklin & Marshall College.

Other than Eastern's 25-16 win in the third set, the match was back-and forth the entire way and both teams had spectacular defensive sequences that kept points alive and turned momentum. Swarthmore ended the night with 87 digs and the Eagles had 79. Trinity Gruber posted a season-best 20 digs to match Grace Casagrande for team high honors.

The Garnet (14-7) scored the final three points of the opening set to go up 1-0 with a 25-23 win. Isabel Adam pounded out the final two points of the set for the visitors. Adam led the Garnet with 20 kills in the match. The Eagles spent a decent amount of time out of system in the opening set, and though they were successful on 14-of-24 sideout chances, they hit only .077 with only eight kills. Pringle had 11 attempts, but the Garnet kept her off the board for the entire first set.

The home side did more to help themselves in taking a 25-23 win in the second set. Pringle found some gaps and pounded out eight kills on 13 swings. As a group, the Eagles hit .283 with 17 kills. Even with the dynamic offense going, the Eagles needed a late run with Jiron-Bujanda serving to find the margin of victory. Eastern trailed 21-19 before Pringle put away a ball to send her setter back to serve. Jiron-Bujanda put the visitors out of rhythm for three points to put her side up 23-22. The Garnet earned a sideout and then tied the set at 23 before Pringle earned a sideout with a kill. Mackenzie Boyer put away the final point to tie the match.

Both teams hit really well in the third set. The Eagles hit .444 and the Garnet hit .393, but the Eastern serving made a huge difference. Eastern delivered six aces without an error from the service line and were 14-for14 receiving serve. Pringle put away six more kills.

Eastern had a three three-point leads in the fourth set and were up 22-19. The Garnet used Adam's strength in the front row and aggressive serving from Melissa Eyer, their libero, to grab a 23-22 lead. Pringle tied the match with her seventh kill of the set, but the Garnet claimed another 25-23 win after a service error and an ace. Swarthmore won the serving battle in the fourth. They had two aces and only one error. The Eagles posted just one ace and five errors.

The fifth set started with a strange play where it looked to the Eagles like the Garnet scored on their fourth contact. The point stood for the visitors after the officials conferred and determined the initial contact was part of a blocking motion. Swarthmore built a 4-1 lead before Jiron-Bujanda served the Eagles back into a 4-4 tie. A big block from Bridgette Kelly and Boyer put the Eagles up 6-5, and the Eagles would not trail again.

The finish, however, was not without stress. The Eagles had a 12-8 lead  and were up 14-11 on Pringle's 24th kill of the night. The Garnet came up with two consecutive blocks on Pringle to pull within one before a perfect pass led to a Bridgette Kelly kill to end the match.

"Hannah stayed aggressive and turned out to be a big factor in the match."  Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said after the match. "Our defense played well. Trinity had some huge plays and I think that's a season high for her in digs, and in the end our serving made difference. This was a good win against a quality team."

Viviana Fragoso and Grace Cooper each finished with nine digs. Fragoso had five of the team's 11 aces. Martin finished the match with 11 kills and five blocks while hitting .357. With the big night, Pringle moves to within range of 1000 career kills. The junior hitter is just 17 kills away from that milestone.

The Eagles are at Albright on Tuesday before closing out the regular season with four home matches in a seven day stretch. Next Friday they will play NYU in a rematch of last year's Regional Semifinal. the following evening they will host Kean University. The match against Messiah on Nov. 5 will determine the top seed for the upcoming MAC Commonwealth Tournament.