ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– With her first kill in the third set against the New York University Violets, Hannah Pringle reached the 1000 kill mark for her career. The junior pounded eight kills in that third set to help the Eagles to extend the match, but the visiting Violets erased an 18-16 Eastern lead in the fourth to claim the match. Pringle finished with a match-high 17 kills. 

With both teams providing a big presence at the net and playing good defense behind, neither team hit a great percentage for the match. The Eagles (17-7)  had four players reach double-figures in digs and recorded a season-high 12 blocks. Jessie Schreiber had seven blocks, Bridgette Kelly had six, and McKenzie Boyer, and Natalie Sasxton each had five. Grace Casagrande led the Eagles with 17 digs, Elle Jiron-Bujanda had 16, Trinity Gruber had 15, and Grace Cooper had 11. 

The Eagles stayed within striking distance throughout the opening set, but the Violets (18-10) scored the final four points of the set to win 25-21. 

In the second set, both teams were over 60 percent on their sideout chances. With the serve changing hands so often, the two teams wound each wound up out of subs in each of the final three sets. The eagles led 23-20 in the frame, but the visitors found a way to close out the set, 26-24, with two setters on the court. Pringle started to heat up in the second set. The Eagles found a little faster tempo, and the junior put away four balls to pull to within one kill of the plateau. 

She hit the milestone on her first kill of the third set to put the Eagles up 2-1. She is the 16th player in program history to hit the 1000 kill mark. 

Both teams fought off set points in what turned out to be a wild third set. Scheiber had the first two service attempts of her career and Grace Cooper rotated into the front row. In an unconventional rotation, natalie Saxton put down the final two balls to lift the Eagles to a 29-27 win.

Eastern led 18-15 in the fourth, but NYU sophomore Grace Nelson put together a strong run at the service line to lift the Violets to a 21-18 advantage. NYU was perfect on sideouts to close with a 25-20 win.

Nelson led NYU with 15 kills, Yooni Park finished with 30 of NYU's 88 digs. 

"Congrats to Hannah on hitting a big milestone," Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said after the match. "As she does in these tough games, she stayed aggressive and kept attacking. That was important for us. This was a good game with two good teams playing good defense. We did a lot of good things tonight. Tough matches like these can show us where we need to continue to improve. We will look to work on those things as we get ready for a big conference match against Messiah on Tuesday."