Eastern's Eagles, despite not having won a game yet this year, nearly took a 1-0 lead in the match over the defending North Star League champions. AE led 22-17 after Adrienne Herzberg's ace capped a three-point run. But Hale fought back a pair of Andrea Herzog aces, and though Hale lost serve on the next point, Herzog pulled Hale to within 23-22 on a perfectly placed tip and Shannon Self tipped the ball off an AE defender to tie the game at 23-23.

An errant Hale hit gave AE the lead again, but Hale, which had struggled with its hitting all game, suddenly found its game as Herzog, Self and Karys McKulsky finished the game off with three straight kills.

“That (comeback) was pretty good,” Hale coach Kristi Benedict said. “The girls managed to maintain their focus when they had to. They've been very good about that, even when they struggle with their hitting like we did tonight.”

“We looked so much better that game than we have,” AE coach Hannah Neil said. “These girls have improved so much. That first game we used all three hits just about every time, and it paid off.”

Hale, for its part, was using a different serve-receive set for the first time, and the resulting confusion proved costly. But to their credit, Eastern's Eagles were also playing without injured setter Amanda Humerickhouse, keeping their offense in an unsettled state as well.

Hale carried its momentum into the second game, bolting to a 23-4 lead before settling for a 25-9 win.

“We stopped setting it up, stopped getting our three hits in,” Neil said. “And I think we lost our confidence after the way the first game ended.”

“That, and we stopped communicating,” said AE hitter Nicole Daniels. “We just stopped talking.”

On the other side of the net, the opposite was happening.

“Once we got into the second game, we started communicating,” Benedict said. “Our first game we were really flat and not talking.

“Our serving really helped us too. Shannon, Kara, Andrea, and Jessica Beasinger, who hadn't been serving, all served well.”

The third game went much as the second did, with McKulsky, Self, Herzog, Hunt and Stephanie Windsor taking turns drilling Brandi Jaremba's sets over the net to keep the Hale hitting game in gear, while AE struggled to regain the momentum it had in the first game.

Hale improved to 3-6 overall, 2-1 in North Star League matches, while Eastern dropped to 0-6, 0-5.