ST. DAVIDS, Pa. — For the second-straight season, Eastern University Women's Volleyball (23-8) dropped a heartbreaking five-setter in the MAC Commonwealth Championship game. Despite featuring a slew of new players, the Eagles returned to the Championship match but fell in the final two sets to the Stevenson University Mustangs.
Two weeks ago, Eastern won the regular contest against Stevenson in four. After that match, Head Coach
Mark Birtwistle was impressed with his own team's play but knew that the Mustangs would be difficult a second time. Both
Hannah Pringle and
Alexis Standford hit for over 20 kills in that match.
Standford and Pringle posted big numbers again today. Pringle matched her career-high with 27 kills and Standford delivered a career-best 25.
Viviana Fragoso picked up a match-high 22 digs.
The margins in the championship were incredibly tight. After the Mustang's won 25-23 in the first set, the Eagles won the second set by the same score. Down 24-20 in the third, the Eagles snagged a sideout on a service error and then looked to Fragoso to serve. Eastern's senior libero delivered two aces in a five-point run for a 26-24 win. With three aces tonight, Fragoso finishes her season with 63 aces against just 19 errors. She becomes the fifth Eastern player to record 500 digs in a season.
The Mustangs (18-13) built a three-point lead late in the fourth and held that edge to the finish to force a fifth set.
After the teams traded points early, the Mustangs scored three-straight points with Allison Gaus serving. The Eagles won some great points down the stretch, but they were unable to string them together and Stevenson won 15-11.
Giulia Viglietta finished with 22 kills and 19 digs to earn Tournament MVP honors.
Sarah Furey had 35 assists and 20 digs and the Eagles had ten total blocks.
"I want to thanks and a congrats to Hannah and Viv on a special career at Eastern," Birtwistle said after the match, "Both set milestones and find themselves on some impressive all-time leader boards. We will certainly miss their impact as players and as quality people."
With 474 kills this year, Pringle moves into Eastern's top-ten single season mark for this year. The four-year starter is just the fourth player in Eastern Women's Volleyball to connect for over 1500 kills.
This is the fourth time Eastern and Stevenson have met in a MAC Commonwealth Championship match. Eastern won in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Though the matches have almost always been close, Eastern had won the previous nine contests between the two programs.
Stevenson will find out its NCAA destination on Monday.
