GEORGETOWN, Texas - The #20 nationally-ranked Pirate volleyball team opened up the Halloween tournament on Friday afternoon by defeating UT Tyler in straight sets and then downed #5 Eastern in five in the final match of the day.

Southwestern's steady, consistent play aided the Pirates early as they capitalized on the Patriots mistakes and won game one easily, 25-14. Southwestern continued the momentum, blasting out to a 6-1 lead and used scrappy tactics and heads up plays to stretch it to a 14-3 lead. With fresh legs on the court the Pirates continued to press and kept the Patriots at a safe distance, closing out the contest 25-14 once again.

The Pirates refused to back down as they continued to apply relentless pressure to UTT taking a commanding 16-4 lead at the outset of the third game. Southwestern officially put the Patriots away with a game three win 25-11.

The two heavyweights of the tournament, #5 Eastern and the #20 Pirates, faced off in the final match of the day. The Eagles were the first to reach 25 in game one, by a slim margin, to win 25-21. Southwestern came right back at them, however, and mounted a seven point lead, 17-10, halfway through game two on a well-placed kill into the back left corner by Lauren Brown. Eastern's timeout did the trick as they forced a miss serve by the Pirates. The teams traded points before the Eagles mounted a comeback to pull within one, 24-23. Coach Long's timeout refocused the Pirates as they closed out game two, 25-23.

Southwestern slowly built up a lead at the outset of game three, leading early 7-5. With some hard hits and well-placed blocks Eastern pulled back even and eventually took the lead 11-10, but the Pirates forced the Eagles into errors to move ahead 14-12.  Eastern answered again and moved ahead 15-14 before Brown's kill off a block followed by a monster hit by Allison Stubbs sparked a Pirate rally, giving SU a five point lead 19-15 at a crucial point in the game. Southwestern pressed to the end, winning 25-16 on a block by Lindsay Thompson and Jill Wigington, to go up two games to one.

The battle continued as game four seesawed back and forth until the Pirates began to pull ahead again 17-14. The Eagles made it a game by pulling back even 19-19 as they fought to stay in the contest, but Southwestern had other plans as they came back ahead 21-19. A missed serve by SU gave Eastern the ball back and a block put them back even at 21. Thompson's kill that hit inside of the 8 foot line put SU up by one but a missed kill opportunity locked the game at 22. Trading points the rest of the way Eastern was able to close out the game 26-24 on a block to force game five.

As with the rest of the match, game five started out as a back and forth contest until Southwestern pulled ahead at the midway point 8-4. With heated rallies Eastern inched closer 10-8, forcing the Pirates into a timeout. A long rally was ended by a mishit by the Eagles, putting SU within one point of the win, 14-11. Southwestern took the game and match win when Brown's kill deflected off Eastern's block out of bounds.

Southwestern resumes action tomorrow as they face St. Thomas at noon and Texas Lutheran at 6pm in the final day of action at the Halloween Tournament.