Center Valley, PA (November 4, 2017) - The DeSales University volleyball gave defending champ Eastern University a battle but ultimately fell to the Eagles, 3-1 (25-18, 19-25, 25-12, 26-24), in the MAC Freedom Championship on Saturday afternoon in front of a capacity crowd in Billera Hall.

The loss ends DSU's season with a 22-10 overall record and gives the Eagles (20-12) the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament next week.

The first set saw Eastern jump out to a 5-1 lead before DSU closed the gap to 9-8 on a kill from freshman Grace Merritt (Newark, DE).  EU rebounded though scoring seven of the next 10 points but the Bulldogs scored three straight later in the match to pull within 18-16 forcing an Eastern timeout.  Out of the time the Eagles ran off three straight points and DeSales was unable to recover.

The second set again saw EU jump out early holding an 8-5 and 10-7 lead.  DSU continued to trail by three points (17-14) before taking control running off four straight points to take an 18-17 lead on three kills and an Eagle error.  Tied at 18, the Bulldogs then scored six straight points that included two aces from sophomore Taylor Aron (Sinking Spring, PA) and two kills from freshman Noel Kelly (Saylorsburg, PA) before EU ended the rally but DeSales got the clinching point on a Kelly kill on the next serve.

The third set saw DeSales start very slow falling behind 5-0 and 15-4 and were never able to recover as EU took a 2-1 lead.

The fourth set was an epic battle featuring 13 ties and five lead changes.  DSU jumped out early with a 5-2 lead before five straight Eastern points made it 7-5.  Tied at 21, the Eagles scored three straight to take a 24-21 lead but the Bulldogs refused to give in as a kill from junior Gabby Savite` (Long Valley, NJ), an ace from sophomore Jess Smith (Bethlehem, PA), and a kill from junior Taylor Antoniewicz (Cranford, NJ) tied the score at 24.  EU ended the rally with a kill and a hitting error on the Bulldogs on the ensuing serve on a broken play gave the Eagles the win.

The Bulldogs had a very balanced attack with Kelly leading the way with 11 kills.  Savite`, Merritt, and sophomore Morghan Shoemaker (Allentown, PA) each had nine kills with Shoemaker hitting .350 and adding four blocks.  Savite` added nine digs.

Freshman Julia Bradford (Mertztown, PA) finished with 35 assists, junior Natalie Gray (Aston, PA) totaled 16 digs, and sophomore Taylor Aron (Sinking Spring, PA) played well in the back row with nine digs and five service aces.

Freshman Caroline Shelby led Eastern with 27 kills and was the only player with double digit kills to earn Tournament MVP honors.