NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Despite winning the first game, the No. 23 Juniata women's volleyball team could not find an answer for No. 4 Emory's attack and fell 3-1 (19-25, 28-26, 25-19, 25-18) in the NCAA Division III Regional Semifinal Saturday afternoon. Juniata (25-12) is now 98-38 all-time in the tournament.
"I thought that we had times when we were pretty much in charge of that match," said Head Coach Heather Pavlik. "Needed to be a little more consistent in the second half of the match, but certainly no shame in losing to Emory who's a great team."
Two Eagles earned double-doubles in the match. Senior Kelsey Fuller grabbed her 15th double-double of the season with a team-high 12 kills and 14 digs.
"Throughout the whole match, our focus would go up and down, but towards the end, we just played with focus which was really a positive thing for us," said Fuller of the battle. She is the only senior on the squad and added that next year's team is "going to be amazing. In all my four years, I've never played with such a good group of girls. They're going to do great things in the years to come and I'm more than proud of them. I'm more than proud to say I got to be a part of that team."
Fuller led the team with 308 kills and was second in digs with 425 this season. She closes her career with 1,111 kills and 1,242 digs. Her career digs and total attacks (3,328) place her 9th all-time in Juniata history in both categories. She is among an elite group who have put their names in the record books for multiple categories.
All-Mid-Atlantic Region middle blocker Courtney Lydick (McKean, Pa./General McLane) also finished in double-digits in kills (11) along with freshman Kristin Collins (Freedom, Pa./Ambridge) who picked up 10. Lydick finished the season leading the team in hitting percentage (.338) and blocks (94) and was second in kills with 291.
Sophomore Brittani Young (Columbia, Pa./Helpfield Area) finished with a team-high 18 digs, giving her a career-high 647 for the season. The total puts her 10th all-time in season digs.
Juniata bows out of the dance in the regional semifinal for the second year in a row, but Pavlik is already looking toward next year. "I think that this experience, in and of itself will probably change some things in our program," she said. "Being able to focus on one point at a time, to handle not getting ahead of ourselves, those are accumulative skills that you gather along the way. I think that this young crew benefitted from having Kelsey around to show them the way. The more tough matches you're in, and sometimes it's the tough losses that teach who you are and who you want to be and I think that's where we are headed."
Follow Your Eagles! Stay up-to-date on your Juniata College Eagles by following us on twitter (@JuniataEagles) and on Facebook (Juniata Eagles).
