GRANTHAM, Pa.— In a rematch of last year's MAC Commonwealth Championship match, Eastern University Women's Volleyball earned a critical three-set win over the host Messiah University Falcons to clinch a spot in the upcoming MAC Commonwealth Tournament. Hannah Pringle and Sarah Furey each finished with nine kills to lead the Eastern attack.

With an injury over the weekend,  the Eagles had to make a pretty significant adjustment to the line-up heading into tonight's important league test. Furey moved to the outside from her normal setting spot. Playing six rotations, Furey hit .226 and added seven digs and a block in her new position. Taylor Stone and Kallie Rogers ran the offense for the evening.

With all the offensive changes, the Eagles knew serving and passing would be vitally important to success in a gym where things have not always been great. Messiah (13-9, 3-2)  has won five of the last seven matches between the two sides in Hitchcock Arena.

The Eagles jumped to a 9-3 lead on strong serving runs from Viviana Fragoso, Rogers, and Veronica Faber. While the Eagles did not score on an ace in the first, the Falcon offense was not able to get into system. Messiah was successful on only 45 percent of their serve -receive chances in the first set.

The Eagles, on the other hand, hit .371 in the first set. Pringle put away six balls on seven attacks, and the Eagles had only two hitting errors against 15 kills on the way to a 25-14 win.

Emma Cieselka, Faber, and Stone each had big service runs to push the Eagles into a 17-7 lead in the second. After a timeout, the Falcons pieced together a five-point run to close to within five. Jessie Schreiber found a line on an out-of-system system swing to stop the Messiah run. Schreiber finished the night with six kills and three blocks.

Grace Cooper came on to serve a three-point run. Schreiber was involved in blocks with Pringle and Maddie Golia to put the Eagles up 21-12. The teams traded sideouts on the way to Eastern claiming the second set 25-16.

The Eagles used five aces and three blocks to overcome an early Messiah lead on the way to a 25-23 win n the third. The Falcons led 8-2 in the frame, but the Eagles tied the match at 9-9 and the two teams traded points to the finish.

The Eagles had only seven kills and eight hitting errors in the third set.

Fragoso finished with a team-high 12 digs. Ciesielka and Faber each had three aces. In the match, the Falcons had only two service aces against 10 service errors.

"This was a big step in the right direction putting back-to-back quality wins together, Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said, "It's important to get these conference wins at the end of the year. The team committed to working hard on their serving this week, and it proved to be important. It was a really nice job by Emma, Coop, and Viv keeping our serve receive on point."

With the win, the Eagles lock up one of the four spots in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament with two matches left in the league season. Eastern will be at Stevenson on Tuesday. The Mustangs are 5-0 in the league and have also locked up a spot. In the other match with post-season implications, Messiah and Widener will also play each other on Tuesday.