SCRANTON, Pa. — Eastern University Women's Volleyball rallied to to force a fourth set, but the young Eagles fell by the slightest of margins in the fifth set to drop a road match against the University of Scranton Royals. Hannah Pringle had 17 kills and a career-high 20 digs in the loss.

In the opening set, the Eagles (6-3) trailed 22-17before scoring nine of the final 11 points to snare a 26-24 win. Grace Cooper served a five-point run to put Eastern up 24-23. Jessie Schreiber had a kill and a block, Pringle had a kill, and Copper had an ace in the sequence. The Eagles hit a solid .244 with only two hitting errors in the frame. Schrieber had three kills and two blocks and Josie Arezina had three kills and a block. Viiviana Fragoso and Kallie Rogers each had six digs.

The Royals (6-4) hit .362 and controlled the action in the next two sets. The Eagles hit only .113 as a team and struggled to sideout with consistency.

An early run with Cooper at the service line put the Eagles up 11-6 in the fourth. Though both teams made runs, the Eagles held their lead and earned a 25-21 win to force a fifth set. Pringle and Alexis Standford each had four kills in the fourth.

In the decisive fifth, neither team led by more than a point until Scranton went up 14-12 . Pringle earned a sideout to cut the deficit to 14-13, but after a timeout, the hosts earned a sideout to win the match. The Eagles hit only .121 in the final set. Shrieber, who finished the match with a career-best 11 kills and six blocks, had two blocks int he final set.

"It was good to see that we were able to come back after being down to push the match to five sets., Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said. "We have two though matches tomorrow to bounce back."

Pringle's 20 digs comes in a match where she played six rotations fo the first time in her career. The senior, who is on Eastern's top-ten list in kills, had never hit double-figures in digs before tonight. Fragoso had 18 digs, and Sarah Furey finished with 28 assists. Scranton setter Cami Quirk had 63 assists.

The Eagles will play the Union College Dutchmen at 1:30 and the Rowan University Profs at 4:00. Eastern has never played Union. The Eagles have played Rowan 19 times in a series dating back to 1996.