DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The sixth-ranked and top-seeded Embry-Riddle volleyball team earned a spot in The Sun Conference championship match with a 3-0 sweep (26-24, 25-12, 25-11) of Warner in the semifinals Friday afternoon at the ICI Center. The Eagles will play third-seeded St. Thomas in Saturday's championship at 2 p.m., also at the ICI Center.
 
The Blue and Gold jumped out to a 4-0 in the first set and maintained a lead for a majority of the frame. Warner used a 5-1 run to take the lead, 20-17, forcing Embry-Riddle head coach Joslynn Gallop to take a timeout. The Royals continued to lead, eventually pulling to within one point of winning the set, 24-21. But the Eagles rallied to score the final five points of the set on the strength of two Taylor Martin kills and three Warner errors; ERAU won the set, 26-24, and took all the momentum with them into the second set.
 
The Eagles dominated the second set, scoring 21 of the first 26 points. Embry-Riddle did not trail once in the set, outhitting Warner, .406 to .029. The Royals scored four straight points at the end of the set, but a kill from Erika Hinel closed out the frame at 25-12 in favor of the Eagles, giving ERAU a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Embry-Riddle continued to dominate throughout the third set, leading for all but one point of the frame. The Eagles hit .542 in the set compared to WU's .083 percentage. Back-to-back kills from Martin built the Eagle lead to 11-5 and a kill from Hinel capped a 5-0 run to put the home team up 20-9. Hinel and Martin terminated the final two points of the match as the Blue and Gold ran away with the third set, 25-11, to complete the 3-0 sweep.
 
Martin led all players with 16 kills and hit .387, while Jordan Holcomb added 13 kills and hit .346 to go along with 10 digs. Emily Jacobson (7 kills, .429 hitting percentage), Hinel (5 kills, .833) and Morgan Shattuck (4 kills, .429) dominated the middle of the floor. Hannah Gray picked up a match-high 14 digs and Adriana Vazquez tallied a match-best 40 assists to go along with nine digs.
 
Jenni Cook led Warner with eight kills while Tiffani Pate added six kills and three blocks. Chloe' Boehm collected team-highs in assists (15) and digs (7).
 
The Eagles will return to the court tomorrow afternoon in The Sun Conference championship match at 2 p.m. inside the ICI Center against St. Thomas.