The Royals earned a win in convincing fashion Thursday night, taking a 3-0 sweep at Ferrum College. It was also the first win in the Coach Casey Steinbrecher era.

EMU's volleyball women improve to 1-2 before they come home again this Sunday. The women host Randolph College at 3:00pm, with Senior Recognition ceremonies coming at the conclusion of Sunday's match. Both the match and ceremony will be available via a live video webstream.

After giving up the first three points of the night to Ferrum, the Royals took off. The women unleashed an 8-0 run early in the first to jump ahead. They led by as many as eight points before an ace from Megan Miller (Millersburg, Ohio/Central Christian) closed out a 25-21 win.

They scored the first five points in the second and looked in control once again before Ferrum used a 5-0 spurt to get their first lead at 22-21. But EMU scored the final three points of the set on kills, flipped back in front to win 25-23.

The Royals' late win seemed to tame the Panthers as EMU rolled in the third set. Another big 8-0 run blew open a 17-7 cushion before Paris Hutchinson (Waynesboro, Va./Wilson Memorial) closed the night with a kill for a 25-14 score.

Hutchinson highlighted an efficient attack for the women, as the freshman opposite landed eight kills on 16 attacks for a .438 kill percentage. Hannah Johnson (Staunton, Va./Wilson Memorial) led all players with 11 kills, while Heather Phelps (Moseley, Va./Cosby) came out of the middle with nine kills on 18 swings. As a team, EMU hit .276 with setter Tori Wigley (Elkton, Va./East Rockingham) racking up 35 assists.

Defensively, Phelps and Johnson each got in one three of the team's four blocks. Sarah East (Washington, Va./Rappahannock County) picked up nine digs while Hutchinson added seven.

The Royals also landed 10 service aces against just six errors. Bethany Shultz (Harrisonburg, Va./Eastern Mennonite) had three of the aces, and Johnson, East and Hutchinson each had two.