St. David's, PA (November 7, 2015) – The DeSales University volleyball team battled but ultimately fell short falling to #16 Eastern University, 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, 25-17), in the MAC Freedom Championship on Saturday afternoon.
 
The loss drops the Bulldogs to 22-11 overall as DSU will now await a potential ECAC Tournament berth sometime on Monday afternoon to extend its season.
 
After dropping the first set 25-13 after EU (28-7) scored the final six points of the first set, the second set was very tight set featuring 12 ties and six lead changes.
 
DSU took an early 9-7 lead forcing an Eastern timeout but scored the first two points out of the timeout to lead 11-7.  EU battled back to tie the score at 13 before DSU pushed its lead back up to three points (20-17) forcing another Eagle timeout.
 
After trading points out of the timeout DeSales led 21-18 before Eastern scored three straight to tie the set at 21.  Still tied at 22, EU's Alicia Weigel came up big with a kill and EU got the final two points on a Bulldog attack error and service that just dropped in front of the back line.
 
Eastern never trailed in the fifth opening up a 5-0 lead and the Bulldogs were unable to recover falling 25-17.
 
Freshman Gabby Savite' led DSU with 10 kills and 10 digs.  Junior Lisa Wallitsch also had a double-double with 17 assists and a team-high 13 digs and also contributed three service aces in the loss.
 
Freshman Julie DePuyt played well in relief of senior Kait Anderson who was unable to play with a knee injury registering seven kills and freshman Natalie Gray had 10 digs.