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Center Valley, PA (November 2, 2011) – The DeSales University volleyball had it clicking on all cylinders on Wednesday, despite getting just one day of practice before the match due to area power outages, rolling past Freedom Conference rival FDU-Florham, 3-0 (25-18, 26-24, 25-21), to advance to the Freedom Conference Championship match on Saturday at Eastern University.

DeSales (27-5) earns its 27th win of the season, tying the second most in program history matching the 1993 team's win total.  The Bulldogs are now two wins shy of tying the single-season record of 29 wins set in 1995.

DSU was terrific on defense tonight backing up their national rank of fourth in the country in digs per set with 66 total digs, while also adding eight team blocks as compared to zero blocks for the Devils (29-8).  The Bulldogs also kept the ball in the court, committing just 11 hitting errors as compared to 28 by FDU-Florham.

In the first set, DSU took control early, never trailing and cruised to a 25-18 win, in the second set, the Bulldogs trailed by two points most of the way but used a five-point run when the score was 21-18 to take a 23-21 lead and eventually took set #2, 26-24.  In the third set, FDU had control with four straight points to lead 18-15, but DSU pulled together and ran off 10 of the next 13 points to win the match, 25-21.

Junior Paige Horrigan was outstanding once again totaling nine kills with zero errors, a .375 hitting percentage and a match-high six blocks.  Senior Lauren Hickey added eight kills and hit .250 and sophomore Haley Petrarca finished with five kills and two blocks.

Junior Justine McNulty totaled 23 assists, moving her within 10 helpers of her first career 1,000 assist season, and added two aces, 10 digs, and a block.  Junior Eden Reichard was outstanding on the back row with a team-high 18 digs and freshman Amanda Wallitsch totaled 13 digs and three aces.  Sophomore Emilie Baker chipped in with three kills, nine digs, and four blocks.

The Bulldogs will travel to top seeded Eastern University, a 3-0 winner over Delaware Valley College on Wednesday, for the Freedom Conference title match on Saturday with a game time to be announced sometime tomorrow.