Story Courtesy of Eastern Athletics

ST. DAVIDS, Pa.— With a tight three-set win over MAC newcomer Neumann, Eastern University Volleyball advanced to Saturday's MAC Commonwealth Championship match.  They will host second-seeded Stevenson University at 2 pm. Grace Cooper led a stellar defensive effort with 25 digs and Sarah Furey delivered 29 assists as the Eagles pulled away in front of a packed house at The Nest.

"[It was a] really nice team win tonight," Eastern Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said after the match. "Neumann played with a lot of energy and emotion,  and we had to weather the storm in every set. Sarah did a nice job running the offense , and we needed our defensive effort against their attack."

The win takes the Eagles to a conference championship match for the 31st consecutive season under Birtwistle. While Eastern Volleyball has had the better of the rivalry with Neumann — the two teams were league rivals for nearly 20 years and first played in the early 80's — the last time Neumann came to St. Davids for a post-season match, the Knights claimed a four-set win in Eastern's final appearance as a member of the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference. Many of the players in today's match, however, were not yet born or only infants in 2007.

The opening set went point-for-point early on. With the Knights playing two setters and subbing in servers, they began to run out of subsittions. Even so, the guests took a 17-16 lead and forced a timeout on a service run from Amiya Carter.  Out of the timeout, Alexis Standford delivered a booming kill to tie the score with a sideout.  Neumann answered back with a sideout before a huge call on a Piper Xeller shot on the line sent Cooper back to serve.

Eastern's senior liber put the pressure on with aggressive serves and the Eagles broke open the set with three-straight points. Veronica Faber and Jessie Schreiber earned the middle point and forced a Neumann timeout with a block. Out of the timeout, Xeller put away her fourth kill of the set for a 21-18 lead. After Neumann earned a sideout with a block of their own, Xeller put away an out-of-system ball for another sideout. Schreiber then served out the set.

In the first set, Xeller had five kills and Standford had three and the Eagles hit .188. With Eastern's block up, the Knights hit a negative number in the opening set.  Furey had seven digs.

The Eagles jumped to a five-point lead early in the second set and looked poised to run away. The lead stretched to six at 19-13 on a block from Xeller and Faber. The Knights (13-14) showed their grit and closed the gap to a single point at 22-21. After a Standford kill for a sideout, Schreiber and Lane McLaughlin delivered a block to push the lead to three. Neumann again closed the gap, but the Eagles went up two sets on a service error at 24-23.

Faber and Xeller each had four kills as the Eagles hit .159 in the second set. Cooper had 11 digs in the frame.

Serving toward the student section, the Eastern players served well in the third. Furey recorded the squad's only two aces of the match. The Eagles trailed just once and used big serving runs to pull into the lead. Even up six, the lead never felt comfortable after watching the Knights in the second set.

Eastern went up 18-12 when Olivia McGowan answered a three point run with a pair of points to force Neumann into their final timeout of the set. The guests ran good offense out of the break and earned a sideout and pulled to within three with Melissa Eddy serving. Faber then put the game away with a three-point run. Furey had a pair of kills in the burst. Schreiber delivered a big swing to take the Eagles to match point and the the third set ended 25-17 on a service error.

Faber finished with eight kills on 17 swings and added five blocks. Furey finished with three kills and 12 digs.

Stevenson advanced to Saturday's Championship match with a three-set win over Messiah. That match ended just as the Eagles scored their 24th point. This will be the fifth MAC Championship game meeting between the two schools since Eastern joined the MAC Commonwealth in 2021. While Eastern won the first three, Stevenson won last year's match in five sets.

Ticket information will be made available on Friday.