Owings Mills, MD - Owings Mills, MD – The Messiah women's volleyball team overpowered DeSales University in their final match of the MAC crossover winning 3-0 (25-15, 25-10, 25-18). Jane Underman tallied 13 kills while Taylor Hook added 10 of her own. Defensively Emily Zellers recorded 14 digs while Brooke Gallagher finished with 38 assists. The Falcons improve to 16-3 on the season.
 
Match One: Messiah 0, Eastern University 3 (16-25, 18-25, 20-25)
The Messiah women's volleyball team was swept by No. 13 Eastern University (16-25, 18-25, 20-25) in their first match of the MAC crossover. Jane Underman and Kristen Douglas led the team with eight kills apiece. Emily Zellers recorded 13 digs and Brooke Gallagher dished out 22 assists. The Falcons fall to 15-3 on the season but look to bounce back with a match against DeSales University later today.

Messiah led early in the first set 8-6 but Eastern tallied four-straight points off three kills and a Messiah error to go ahead 10-8. Later with the Eagles ahead 12-9 they scored three unanswered points to extend their lead 15-9.
 
Messiah made a last minute run pulling within eight 24-16 but a final kill from Eastern gave them the set one victory 25-16.
 
The second set started similar to the first with the Falcons trailing early but they kept fighting. Down 17-12 Messiah put together a three-point scoring run off a kill by Kristen Douglas, an Eastern error, and service ace by Jessica Zellers to cut the lead 17-15.
 
The Eagles responded with four unanswered points of their own extending their lead 21-15. Messiah answered with a kill from Douglas to pull within five but it wasn't enough, as the Eagles would go on to win the second set 25-18.
 
The third and final set was the most competitive of the match and best offensive showing of the day from the Falcons. They finished with 13 kills, a .256 attack percentage, and committed just three errors.
 
Trailing early 8-5 the Falcons tallied four-straight points off kills by Taylor Hook, Braedyn Gallagher, and two Eagle errors to take the lead 9-8. Eastern answered with three points to regain the lead 11-9.
 
Later Messiah was down 18-15 but a kill from Braedyn Gallagher pulled them within two but Eastern responded with two-straight points going up 20-16. The Falcons made a late run, a kill by Mary Underman kept them in it, but unfortunately the Eagles tallied three-straight kills to win the third and final set 25-22.

Match Two: Messiah 3, DeSales University 0 (25-15, 25-10, 25-18)
The last time these two teams played, just one week ago, it took four sets to determine a winner in a very competitive match. This match proved to be different as Messiah dominated DeSales this afternoon winning in a 3-0 sweep.
 
In the first set Messiah tallied more kills (15-8) and had a higher attack percentage (.257-.129) than DeSales.
 
The Falcons jumped to an early 5-0 lead off a kill by Taylor Hook, two service aces from Brooke Gallagher, and two DeSales errors. Later in the set with Messiah ahead 9-6 they put together another scoring run, this time tallying four consecutive points off kills from Kristen Douglas, Jane Underman, and Brooke Gallagher to extend their lead 13-6.
 
Messiah maintained their offensive dominance; leading 14-8 they scored five unanswered points. A service error by DeSales started the run while a service ace from Emily Zellers, two kills by Taylor Hook, and kill from Jane Underman finished it giving the Falcons the 18-8 advantage.
 
Later holding the lead 23-15 the Bulldogs hammered down a kill but the Falcons scored the final two set points off a kill by Mary Underman and DeSales error to win the first set 25-15.
 
Messiah continued their strong play in the second set finishing with more kills (16-6), had a .326 attack percentage, and only committed three errors.
 
With an early 3-1 lead the Falcons scored three-straight points off kills by Hannah Baumer, Kristen Douglas, and a Bulldog error to push the lead 6-1. Later Messiah held the 9-5 advantage and tallied three points extending their lead 12-5.
 
The Falcons kept up their dominance and scored six unanswered points to take a comfortable double digit lead 18-7. In that scoring run Jane Underman hammered down two kills while Taylor Hook added one of her own.
 
It was all Messiah the rest of the second set and with the lead 22-10, two kills from Hanna Baumer, and one from Emily Buckwalter earned the Falcons the victory 25-10.
 
The third and final set was similar to the first two with Messiah coming out on top 25-18. They had more kills (14-13), a higher attack percentage (.364-.222), and committed less errors (2-5), than DeSales.

Messiah utilized two service aces and a kill from Brooke Gallagher, as well as a DeSales error to jump to an early 4-0 lead. Later with the lead still in Messiah's favor 7-4, a kill from Hannah Baumer, Kristen Douglas, and DeSales error extended that lead to 10-4.
 
With the Falcons ahead 20-14, the Bulldogs tallied two points to pull within four but Messiah answered back with three-straight points off two DeSales errors and a kill from Jane Underman to lead by seven 23-16.
 
Later Messiah was ahead 24-17 and a final kill from Taylor Hook sealed the set three and match victory for the Falcons. They finished with 45 total team kills and a .315 attack percentage while serving up nine aces in the match.
 
The Falcons will be back in action next Wednesday Oct. 5 when the travel to Hood College for a MAC Commonwealth conference match. Game time is slated for 7:00 p.m.