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St. David's, PA (November 5, 2011) – The DeSales University volleyball team hung tough and made the fourth ranked team in the country, Eastern University, work for its Freedom Conference championship eventually falling to the Eagles, 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-17), on Saturday evening.

The Eagles (32-2) earned their fourth straight Freedom Conference title thanks mostly to its dynamic duo of senior First-Team All-Americans Maria Horning and Courtney Reinhold who combined for 22 kills, 38 assists, three aces, 18 digs, and two blocks in the win.  EU's only two losses this season have come to #2 Emory University and #3 Washington University.

The Bulldogs (27-6) returned to the Freedom Conference Championship game for the fourth time in the last five years, winning the title in 2007, with its semifinal win over FDU-Florham on Wednesday.  DSU will now await a potential pool “C” bid into the NCAA Tournament as the #6 ranked team in the latest NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Rankings.  There are 20 pool "C" bids in 2011.  If DeSales does not get an NCAA bid, the Bulldogs will likely receive a bid into the ECAC South Region Tournament.

On Saturday, DSU made a few runs at the Eagles.  Trailing 16-6 in the opening set, the Bulldogs ran off five straight points to pull within 16-11, forcing EU to use a timeout in which the Eagles rallied around to score nine of the next 12 points out of the timeout to earn the 25-14 win in set #1.

In the third set the Bulldogs got out of the gates quickly, taking an 11-7 lead to force another Eastern timeout and continued to lead 13-11 before five straight Eagle points gave the hosts a 16-13 lead and EU never looked back en route to its fourth straight Freedom title.

Junior Justine McNulty reached a milestone in the loss, totaling 13 assists to record her first 1,000 assist season of her career.  She also added 14 digs.  Senior Lauren Hickey also played well with seven kills and a .261 hitting percentage in the loss.

Junior Eden Reichard and freshman Amanda Walltisch both played well in the back row combining for 23 digs with Wallitsch adding two service aces.  Sophomore Haley Petrarca and junior Paige Horrigan each finished with four kills with Horrigan adding two blocks.  Freshman Chrissy Banos added two blocks to round out the leaders.

An NCAA or an ECAC post-season bid will be announced at some point on Monday afternoon.