ST. DAVIDS. Pa. – The Messiah women's volleyball was swept by Eastern University to finish the day 3-0 (12-25, 8-25, 25-27). Payton Manwaring and Mary Underman led with eight kills and Jennifer Rusling tallied 26 assists.
 
The loss drops Messiah to 6-11 on the year and they are  back on the court Wednesday Oct. 4 hosting Hood College at 7:00 p.m.
 
Match One: Messiah 1, Rowan 3
Messiah and Rowan were in a gridlock for almost the entirety of the first set with the Profs taking the win 30-28. The second set was also close with both teams staying on the attack offensively. With the Falcons leading 6-5 they tallied three-straight points off kills from Alycia Park-Ferretti, Mary Underman, and a service ace by Heston Cowoski to go up 9-5. Not long after another kill from Mary Underman a couple errors by Rowan placed Messiah ahead 12-6.
 
The Falcons held a nice three-point cushion for most of the set but a late rally by the Profs was a turning point in the match. With the score 18-14 in favor of Messiah, Rowan scored five points in a row to take their first lead 19-18. Messiah answered by tying the score but later trailing 21-20, Rowan tallied the final five points of the set to win 25-20.
 
With Messiah on their heels a win in the third set was necessary to keep the match going and the Falcons were able to do just that winning 25-19. This set was the strongest for Messiah as they finished with 17 kills and a .419 attack percentage.
 
The score was tied at five early when the Falcons tallied three-straight points off two kills by Mary Underman and an error by the Profs to lead 8-5. Later in the set with the Falcons holding a three-point advantage 13-10, kills by Alycia Park-Ferretti and Kate Preudhomme gave Messiah a nice five-point cushion.
 
The Falcons stayed in the lead the remainder of the set and a big moment came with the score 19-16, they scored four unanswered points to extend their lead 23-16. Lanae Hunsberger hammered down two kills, Payton Manwaring provided one, and Jennifer Rusling recorded a service ace in the scoring run. After the Profs responded with three points of their own, a kill by Hunsberger and block assist by Manwaring and Preudhomme earned Messiah the victory.
 
Messiah kept their momentum heading into the fourth set jumping to an early 6-2 lead but Rowan responded to tie the game. This final set provided a lot of back-and-forth action with both teams scoring and tying the game multiple times. Late in the game with the score tied at 17, Rowan tallied three points to take a 2017 lead but Messiah answered with two points. However, the Profs then tallied three points to take a four point lead, the Falcons tallied a point but then two points by Rowan earned them the 25-20 victory.

Match Two: Messiah 0, Eastern 3
Offensive consistency and errors hurt Messiah in this match and Eastern at times was just over powering. The first two sets the Falcons struggled and the Eagles took advantage of errors and won 25-12 and then 25-8.
 
Messiah picked it up in the third set finishing with 14 kills and a .333 attack percentage. They played Eastern tough and it came down to which team was going to grind out the win, unfortunately it fell in favor of the Eagles 27-25.