The Emory University volleyball program closed out the regular season with nine straight wins, including five via straight sets, and on Thursday night it was more of the same impressive play we've seen of late as the Eagles downed Bethany College in three sets in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in Lexington, Kentucky.

With the 25-21, 25-10, 25-14 victory over the Bison, Emory marches on to the second round and will face either host Transylvania University or Randolph-Macon College at 8:00 PM on Friday.

The Eagles saw five players carry the attack on Thursday, led by junior Carly Wallace and sophomore Alana Dawson who both reached double figures in kills. For the fourth straight match Wallace led the team in kills with 11 on a .308 hitting percentage (13-3–26). Dawson reached double digits for the first time since October 8 as she finished the match with 10 terminations while not committing an error as she posted a match-high .667 attack percentage (10-0–15).

Furthering the attack for the Eagles was junior Amanda Meyer who tallied seven kills to go along with four blocks. Sophomores Madison Cail and Lily Martin rounded out the attack with six kills apiece, with Cail leading the team with three solo blocks. Freshman Olivia Rabinowitz has 30 or more assists for the third straight match and sixth out of seven, recording 34 assists and was one of four Eagles with a team-high five digs.

Bethany began the match with upset aspirations, taking eight of the match's first 11 points to force Emory to burn a timeout trailing 8-3. However, out of the break the Eagles slowly began to chip away, eventually tying the score at 16 before a Dawson kill gave Emory its first lead at 17-16. More back-and-forth play kept things tight at 20-19 prior to the Eagles closing out the set on a 5-2 run.

Emory rode that momentum into the start of the second set, storming out to a 7-1 lead and carried that dominating play throughout the remainder of the set en route to the 25-10 set win.

The Eagles cruised to another set win in the third to close out the match, opening the set with more strong play to force Bethany to take timeouts at 9-3 and then again at 16-6. Following the second Bison timeout, the Emory lead grew to as many as 12 before settling on the 25-14 final margin.