The final four

Eastern Athletics has had tremendous success across numerous sports since its inception 100 years ago, especially during the 21st century. Field Hockey has an Elite Eight appearance, Men’s Soccer reached the Sweet Sixteen, and numerous other sports have made NCAA Tournament runs. Sadly, no Eastern team has won an NCAA  one squad came very, very close.

Women’s volleyball has long been the best program in Eastern athletics. Twenty-two conference championships as part of four different conferences, missing the NCAA tournament only three times since 2007, and reaching the Sweet Sixteen a whopping six times in that stretch. In 2011 though, they broke a threshold no team in school history has done. Going 36-3, winning the MAC Freedom and winning 21 consecutive matches throughout October and November, the Eagles made it to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament.

Of course, none of the members of that team have played for Eastern in over a decade, but there’s one guy from that team who is still here: Head Coach Mark Birtwhistle.

The Eagle’s were led by a tremendous group of seniors that put together the best volleyball play in their lives. The offensive attack was led by Courtney Reinhold, a then-senior outside hitter who put up over 500 kills in each of her last three seasons. She’s the only player in program history to reach 2000 career kills, making her the all-time leader in a landslide. She averaged 4.5 kills per set in college, hit .336 for her career, and reached 1000 digs despite being an outside hitter.

There was also senior setter and current assistant coach Maria Horning, who was arguably the best setter in the nation that year. Her 1416 assists in 2011 are the third most for a single season in program history, and she would finish with over 5000 for her career.

The defense was anchored by junior libero Kelly Groff, who like Grace Casagrande today, hit the 500 dig milestone in each of her final three seasons. 2011 was her best year, seeing her hit nearly 600 digs, and she finished her career one shy of 2,000.

The season itself featured dominance of the highest caliber. Besides the aforementioned winning streak, the Eagles, who were then in the MAC Freedom, swept through conference play easily without losing a set, including the conference tournament. Thirty of their wins were 3-0 sweeps, and their only losses of the year each came to teams ranked inside the top five of the national polls. By winning the MAC Freedom, the Eagles won their fourth straight conference title and would go on to win seven more before the streak ended in 2019.

The Eagles were also selected to host one of the eight regional tournaments in the NCAA Tournament thanks to their dominance throughout the season. Hosting at Neumann University, they cruised past Penn State Altoona but nearly suffered a reverse sweep to an unranked Hiram squad. Down 13-12 in the fifth set, Reinhold performed clutch time heroics with a kill, a service ace, and another strong serve that led to their setter committing a violation to steal the win and survive. 

The Eagles then defeated Juniata, who they had lost to in each of their first 17 meetings, on the back of Reinhold’s 26 kills, Horning’s 51 assists, and a 13 kill, 20 dig performance from sophomore outside hitter Kearby Benak. The third set saw the teams combine for a whopping 70 points, and despite the exhaustion, the team used their experience of fighting with their backs against the wall to pull away with the W. In the Elite Eight in St. Louis, they made quick work of St. Thomas despite a slow start, sweeping them to advance to the Final Four for the first time in program history.

The incredible run ended against the #5 Wittenberg University Tigers. In the 3-0 defeat, the Eagles attack was limited to a .148 hitting percentage while the Tigers hit .327. Reinhold had a dozen kills and a dozen digs, and Horning dished out 25 assists. However, the Tigers had five players with at least six kills, and their two setters, Meghan Vodopich and Hallie Donathan combined for 35 assists. Wittenberg, who upset the defending national champions and #1 ranked Calvin earlier in the tournament, would go on to win the National Championship that year in a sweep of Christopher Newport. The Eagles have not played Wittenberg since.

Since then, the Eagles have continued their legacy of success, capturing 10 more conference crowns and reaching at least the NCAA Sweet Sixteen four more times. However, they have never reached the National Semifinals since.