By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
Photo: JD Cavrich
SAINT DAVIDS, Pa. – The No. 8 Juniata College women's volleyball team improved to 12-0 today taking down No. 16 Eastern University 3-1 (26-28, 26-24, 25-15, 25-22). In a clash of top ranked opponents, Juniata raked in five service aces, 57 kills, and a .262 hitting percentage. Junior Amelia Kepler (Kane, Pa./Kane Area) finished with a match-high 17 kills.
"We played some good ball today," said head coach Heather Pavlik. "The girls recovered well after that first set. We were up 22-19 and when you're in that position against a good team you have to close it out. But they responded well and had a lot of confidence in the second set."
Juniata held the lead in the first set at 22-19, but Eastern went on a five-point run to go up 24-23. Juniata had set point twice, but could not find the final tally as Eastern won three straight points to close out the first set. Senior Amy Miller (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) had a career high 26 digs in the match.
"Amy did wonderfully today," said Pavlik. "She came up huge. We made a couple of changes later on and [the team] handled that well. They were very patient today. Sometimes it takes more than an hour or three sets to win a match. The girls understood that you have to work on a match one point at a time. Against good teams you have to focus on every point and every set."
The two teams went back and forth in the second set and were even at 17-17. Eastern then went on a 5-2 run to jump in front 22-19. Juniata was able to respond with a solid run of its own and won the last three points, evening the match at one set apiece. Juniata ran away with the third set jumping out to an early 9-4 then 17-10 lead. Eastern won just five more points as Juniata took a 2-1 set lead.
"Eastern played error free ball in those first two sets," said Pavlik. "That was hard for us at first. Then they started to come down a little bit and we stayed up. We made a few adjustments with the way we were blocking, who we were blocking, and got into a few more points."
Freshman Nakita Gearhart (Waynesboro, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim) had a breakout performance earning a career-high 12 kills and hitting a career-high.348 attack percentage. Senior Rachelle Wiegand (Manheim, Pa./Manheim Central) and junior Christine Sumner (Dublin, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) rounded out the top offensive threats for Juniata with 11 and nine kills respectively.
Eastern worked hard to keep the fourth set close, but Juniata took the first point and never surrendered the lead, winning 25-22. Juniata is next in action at home Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. when they host Indiana University (Pa.).
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