ST. DAVIDS, Pa.— Eastern University Women's Volleyball (10-8) claimed the second and third sets, but the visiting University of Scranton Royals found their offensive rhythm in the fourth set and held off a late Eastern charge to claim a five-set win.
Jessie Schreiber finished with 11 kills, 10 digs, eight blocks, and four aces while playing six rotations for the first time in her career. The Eastern team finished with a modern-era program-record 20 total blocks.
Injuries in the squad had the Eagles with a single setter active for the match.
Sarah Furey ran the offense and finished with 35 assists, 13 digs, and six kills.
Schreiber's serve helped the Eagles to an early lead in the opener. Coming into the day, the senior opposite had served only three times this year and 15 times in her college career. In the first set, she had two aces, but Scranton closed the gap before taking a 14-11 lead on a service run from Gabby Konrad. The Royals (13-8) built their edge to five at 19-14. Schreiber delivered an ace to close the gap, but the two teams traded sideouts down the stretch and the Royals won 25-20.
Scranton's five hitters all had multiple kills in the first as their veteran setter Cammi Quirk dished out eight assists. Early int he second set, Quirk reached 3,000 assists for her career. Furey also had eight assists in the first set.
Huge serving runs from Schreiber and
Olivia McGowan put the Eagles up 13-5 in the second. Both players had aces as they forced an early Scranton timeout. A Quirk serving run helped the guests to pull within a point at 15-14, but the Eagles never relinquished the lead.
Veronica Faber and
Piper Xeller combined on a block for an important sideout at 19-17 before Schreiber served for four more points. Furey put away a Scranton overpass for a 25-19 win. Xeller had four kills and two blocks. The Eagles claimed the frame despite having only seven kills.
The third set was truly remarkable. For context, in 2025 Eastern team had a season-best 11 blocks in a five-set loss at Lebanon Valley. The Eagles combined for 10 blocks in the third set.
The Royals got the first block of the set for a 2-1 lead, and the Eagles tied the frame on a kill from
Lane McLaughlin. The Eagles recorded points by block on six of the next seven points. McLaughlin was part of four, Schreiber was in on three, and Faber had a part in two. With the big block influencing swings, the Scranton hitters then began to miss the court and the Eastern lead grew to 14-4. The Royals cut into the deficit with aggressive serving and had closed the gap to 17-12.
Alexis Standford and Faber combined for a big block to earn the sideout. Faber then dropped three straight aces to restore a nine-point lead at 21-12. Eastern's sophomore middle had three aces and five blocks in leading the Eagles to a 25-21 win.
Though Schreiber and McLaughlin combined for a block to start the fourth, the guests found better passing and spent more time in system in the fourth. Quirk had 13 assists in the set and the Royals hit .419 on the way to a 25-17 win. Schreiber had five kills on 10 swings and McGowan put away a pair of balls, but the Eastern offense was not able to keep up.
Scranton led early and bumped the lead to 12-7 with solid attacking and a key block. McLaughlin picked up her 11th block assist of the match to send
Grace Cooper to the line with the Eagles down 13-9. Cooper served aggressively and Xeller converted a kill to force a Scranton timeout. Faber was part of two more blocks to close the gap to a single point at 13-12. The Royals earned a sideout and finished the match with an out-of-system kill for a 15-12 win.
Xeller matched Schreiber's total with 11 kills, Cooper had a team-high 17 digs, and Faber had nine total blocks and five aces.
The 20 blocks is the most by an Eastern team since at least 2006. Eastern finished with 16 team blocks against Haverford in September of 2016 and had 18 blocks at Stevenson in October of 2014. The Eagles had 13 blocks twice this year.
The Eagles will face a tough Messiah team in a critical MAC Commonwealth contest at home on Wednesday. The Falcons have just one loss in the league.
