CARLINVILLE, Ill. – Precision hitting helps lead Golden Eagles past Blackburn in three sets to improve to 5-2 in SLIAC play.

THE BASICS
FINAL: Spalding def. Blackburn, 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-14)
LOCATION: Carlinville, Ill.
RECORDS: Spalding 5-10; 5-2, Blackburn 0-14; 0-7

THE STARTERS
SPALDING: 6 – Jessica Diehl, 7 – Erin Downs, 16 – Ashley Chase, 18 – Cayla Hoehler, 30 – Kaitlin Hall, 33 – Victoria Heitzman

BLACKBURN: 1 – Emily Schroeder, 3 – Kirsten Buzzard, 6 – Alexis Dick, 8 – Shelsie Timmermeier, 9 – Mallory Scharf, 11 – Jensen Ballinger

HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Golden Eagles took the first set 25-13 hitting a match-high .481, finding the court for 14 kills with only one error on 27 total attacks.
- Again, SU tallied 14 kills to take the second set 25-17. Blackburn hit a team-high .034 for the second set.
- Spalding closed out the third and final set by a margin of 25-14 limiting themselves to one error, while earing 13 kills on 28 attempts.

KEY STATS
- Three Golden Eagles finished the match with kill percentage higher than .500. Jessica Diehl hit a team-high .643 for the match, while Downs hit .643 and Heitzman hit .545 with a team-high 12 kills.
- The freshman trio of Hall, Hoehler and Patterson combined to pass out 35 or Spalding's 38 assists.
- Freshman Jill Dunagan finished the match with a match-high 11 service aces.

UP NEXT
The Golden Eagles will be back in action Saturday, September 26 when they take on MacMurray and Fontbonne as part of a quad-match at hosted by Eureka College. SU will take on the Beavers at 11:00 a.m. EST, followed by a match with the Griffins at 1:00 p.m.