It was Three Straight Sets for the Eagles on Monday...

David Finney - photo by Holly Heath

Waleska, GA - Less than forty-eight hours from playing a game in the Florida road trip, the Eagles were back on the court for an early Monday morning match-up with Cornerstone University. Cornerstone was on a southern states road trip with games in Tennessee, Georgia, and then Kentucky before going heading back to Michigan. In addition to playing the Eagles, Cornerstone played Truett-McConnell in the second match of the day at The Brown Athletic Center.

The Eagles were coming off a tough road trip where they were on the losing end of matches with Warner and Webber International. The Eagles were determined to pick up a win to get things back on track before conference opponent, Life University, comes to Waleska on Wednesday evening. Reinhardt would take full advantage of playing back in their home gym by getting three straight against the Golden Eagles. Each set was close but the Eagles would get three straight in commanding style, 25-20, 25-23, and 25-22.  

Five Eagles led the way in kills. Chase Cross was the top kills leader for the Eagles with 9 total. Troy Sly would be just behind him with 8 kills and Matthew Corrales finished with 7. John Hynes and Dalton Fellow would finish with 6 and 5 respectively. Cross would also have 4 digs for the Eagles. Bruno Dewes would have his usual spot at leading the Eagles in assists with 32.

The Eagles would lead the first set from start to finish with their largest lead being six points. The set was tied at 1-1 and this would be as close as Cornerstone would get as the Eagles would end up winning by four. The second set was much closer and never got more than a three-point lead all the way through. Most of the way it was just one or two points, however, the Eagles did keep the lead until the end. Reinhardt would end up winning the second set by just two with the final kill coming from John Hynes. The third set is one where the Eagles would hop out to a narrow one-point lead, but Cornerstone would tie it several times until about midway through the quarter. Cornerstone tied the game at 15 all and then they were able to get a three-point lead. Troy Sly and Chase Cross got the Eagles back into the game with two back-to-back kills and tied the game once more at 21. A few points later and a kill by Matthew Corrales would give the Eagles a 24-21 lead. The Eagles did not have to do much more from there as Cornerstone would have a service error to end the set. 

The Eagles are roughly two-thirds of the way through this season with just about three weeks of games left before the conference tournament. All remaining games are Mid-South games with the majority coming from a conference pod in Campbellsville, KY. The Eagles will have a good measure of where they stand for the Mid-South Conference Tournament following the conference pod in two weeks. Reinhardt definitely has the talent to finish this schedule strong and make some noise at the tournament.