PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore volleyball team swept the Salisbury University Sea Gulls Friday evening (Aug. 23) after the two squads played four sets inside the William P. Hytche Athletic Center. The Hawks won the sets 25-20, 25-23, 25-22 and 25-12.

"Salisbury is a good team and they brought us some adversity at times early on," head coach Trevor Callarman said. "We are going to be in those type of situations in the season so for us it's about learning how to maintain our identity under pressure."

The first set started at a rapid pace with Salisbury getting out to an early 9-7 lead. Eastern Shore responded with strong play as sophomore Stella Johnson (Newport News, Virginia) was on the service line to help pull away at the end of the set.

The second saw Salisbury go up 5-0 to start and that forced a Hawks timeout. Maryland Eastern Shore would fight back and tie the score at 10 following a kill from Lidia Chery (Garfield, New Jersey). The Shore would not relinquish the lead again in the set.

Set three saw the Hawks get an early lead at 7-3 as they would maintained a lead between three and five points to finish the set. Eastern Shore took control of the final set early on as Anica Jestratijevic (Arandjelovac, Serbia) went back to serve with the Hawks up 3-2 and would not get off the service line until the Hawks led 10-3. The Shore cruised the remainder of the set to finish the sweep.

"It was good to see who could play and perform in a real game situation," Callarman said. "Salisbury brought different offensive and defensive strategies and that is going to help us build for our next match against Central Michigan."

The Hawks open against CMU and Saint Peter's on Aug. 30 at 11:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. respectively in the St. Francis Brooklyn Tournament in New York.

For more information on Eastern Shore Athletics visit http://www.easternshorehawks.com/.