ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– In a battle of teams looking to find their way into the national rankings, Eastern University Volleyball dropped a tough four-set decision to the visiting Christopher Newport University Captains (6-4). In the match,
Logan Martin became the 15th player in the Eastern Volleyball history to reach 1000 career kills. The senior middle hitter led the Eagles (7-3) with 18 kills and a pair of blocks.
The Eagles had a pair of set points in the opening set, but CNU setter Alyssa Vitale made a pair of huge plays with a kill and a block to set up a 27-25 win for the guests. The Eagles had an 18-12 edge in first set kills, but nine hitting errors and six errors in the service game gave the Captains the points they needed to win with tight margins.
Hannah Pringle pounded out eight kills in the opener, and Martin had four kills on only five swings.
The Eagles won the sideout battle and the set in a tough second frame. The two teams exchanged points for most of the second until Viiviana Fragoso went back to serve. The sophomore defensive specialist started her five-point run with a pair of aces. The Eagles went up 22-18 before the Captains stopped the Eastern surge. They gathered momentum with a big block with Vitale at the service line and closed the gap to 22-21 before Martin put down her fifth kill of the set to stop the CNU run.
Grace Casagrande served out the final two points.
Though both teams had runs in the third, the Eagles went up 18-17 on a kill from Martin. The Captains tied the score after a service error and scored twice on each of their next two serving opportunities to pull away to a 25-21 win. Martin's final kill of the set was her 14th of the match and the 999th of her career.
Down 2-1 on sets, the Eagles jumped out to a 10-6 lead early and held that advantage when a Pringle kill made it 13-8. The Captains took advantage of three rotations with Vitale in the back row to pull away. The Eagles hit only .081 in the dropping the final set 25-18. Samantah Dorn had six of her 16 kills in the final frame to help the guests close out the match.
Pringle finished with 12 kills, but the CNU defense was able to turn her away with seven blocks. Martin finished the match with a .406 hitting percentage. She is the first Eastern player to reach 1000 kills since Caroline Shelby did it in 2019.
The Eagles will host the Widener University Pride to open league play next Wednesday.
