ST. DAVIDS, Pa.— After playing fifteen matches on the road, Eastern University Women's Vollyeball (9-7, 3-0) opened its home schedule with. three set win over Blue Route-rival Widener.
Piper Xeller led the Eastern attack with a match-high 12 kills.
The Eagles hit .255 for the match to remain unbeaten in league play.
The Pride (4-15, 1-3) led 19-16 in the opening set. Lane McLauglin started the Eastern rally with a kill and Gracce Cooper served seven consecutive points. Eastern's senior libero changed locations to keep the Widener serve-receive off balance and rolled an ace off the tape to take the Eagles to set point. Widener earned a sideout, but Xeller answered with her third kill of the set.
The two teams played point-for-point through the early part of the second set before a three-point service run from
Sarah Furey put the Eagles up 18-14. Jessie Schrieber and McLaughlin combined on a block for the first point, then Furey delivered an ace to force a Widener timeout. Out of the break, Schreiber completed the run with a big swing for the four-point edge. Though the guests picked up a couple points on serve the way i, the Eagles matched them and took the second set 25-21.
Led by five kills on nine swings from Xeller, Eastern hit .333 in the second. Furey had five digs and eight assists in the frame.
After the third set started at 7-7, the Eagles pulled away to a 25-17 win. Xeller had a pair of serving runs in the flury. With the score 17-15, the Eagles scored back-to-back points on blocks from
Veronica Faber and
Josie Arezina.
Alexis Standford had two kills in the final five points and Schreiber and McLaughlin ended the match with a block. Standford had five kills on seven attacks in the third set, and Xeller had four kills on eight swings.
For the match, Eastern's two outside hitters both hit big numbers, Xeller hit .478 and Standford had eight kill sand just one error on 16 swings to hit .438. Furey finished with 23 assists and Cooper added another double-digit dig effort with 11.
Widener was the only MAC Commonwealth team to beat the Eagles in the regualr season last fall.
The Eagles are at Neumann on Tuesday and will host the University of Scranton next Friday.
