Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Ursinus Women's Volleyball team dropped a pair of matches on the first day of Muhlenberg's Buttermaker Tournament on Friday afternoon.
 
 
The Bears were downed in straight-sets by Eastern (25-17, 25-11, 25-14) before being defeated by Lebanon Valley (25-23, 20-25, 24-26, 22-25) in their second match of the day.


Ursinus opened the day with Eastern and the Eagles started strong by going up 4-1 early in the first set. Ursinus battled back and pulled within one point twice which left the score at 8-7. and went back and forth with the Eagles. Eastern finally pulled away late and won the first set 25-17 behind the first of three sets where they hit at least .345 as a team. The Eagles jumped on the Bears right off the start in the second set by taking an 11-2 advantage. The Bears ended the run with back-to-back points but ultimately could not overcome the hot-hitting Eastern squad that posted a .387 hitting percentage in the second set. The Bears pulled within 3-2 early in the third set after the Eagles won the first three points before Eastern took advantage of multiple errors to build an 11-4 lead. Ursinus only got within six points in the rest of the set while the Eagles continued to stay hot from the floor and won the last six points to close out the set. Sophomore Mel Eglinton led the Bears with nine points and a .333 hitting percentage while junior Caroline Sherman added eight kills. Junior Rachel Bernard paced the offense with 13 assists while sophomore Emily Collins recorded a team-high 14 digs. 
 
 
Against the Dutchmen, the Bears responded to Lebanon Valley taking the first two points of the match by winning six of the next eight points to go up 6-4 in the first set. The Dutchmen won the next three points but were countered by Ursinus with four-straight that put them up 10-7. Three more points by Lebanon Valley tied the set before the Bears won seven of the next nine points to go up 17-12 and forced a timeout. The Dutchmen slowly crawled their way back into the set and tied things up at 20 until Ursinus won three of the next four points to go up 23-21. Lebanon Valley won the next two points to tie the set back up again at 23, but a kill from sophomore Erin Dychdala and ace from Eglinton won Ursinus the first set. Ursinus went up 3-1 in the second set before the Dutchmen began to heat up and took an 11-5 lead. The Bears got within one of the Dutchmen at 16-15 until Lebanon Valley used a decisive five-straight point run to go up 21-15. The Bears made one last charge with three-straight points but got no closer than there the rest of the second set. The teams went back and forth trading points early in the first set and three-straight kills gave Ursinus an 8-6 lead. However, the Dutchmen took nine of the next 10 points to go up 15-9. Ursinus broke through and got within one point at 19-18, but Lebanon Valley had an answer by winning five of the next seven points to get themselves at set point, 24-20. The Bears made a charge with four-straight points to tie the match at 24 until the comeback was stopped with back-to-back kills from the Dutchmen. The competitive match continued into the fourth set as neither team was once again able to break away from each other. Ursinus overcame two four-point deficits and took a 19-18 lead after trailing 17-13 and went up 21-19 following a pair of kills. Unfortunately for the Bears, Lebanon Valley won six of the next seven points to close out the set and match. 



Sherman set a new career-high in kills at 17 and Eglinton tallied her second kill-dig double-double of the season with 10 kills and 14 digs. Senior Haley Spotts added six blocks and four kills while first-year Alexa Mazzeo recorded a team-high 17 digs. Bernard and Dychdala combined for 34 assists with Bernard tallying 19 of them. 
 
 
 
 Ursinus returns to action tomorrow, September 9th as they will conclude the Buttermaker Tournament by taking on Bluffton at 10:00 a.m. and Bard at 2:00 p.m.