By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
Photo: JD Cavrich
HUNTINGDON, Pa. – The No. 7 Juniata College women's volleyball team made quick work of NCAA Division II opponent Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), Tuesday night, winning 3-0 (25-14, 25-14, 25-16). The Eagles improve to 13-0 on the year and look to continue their winning ways at the Christopher Newport Invitational this weekend.
"Some of these midweek games, when you're getting ready for big weekends, can be trap matches for sure," said head coach Heather Pavlik. "We respect IUP and they've given us good matches in the past for sure. We're really getting better at focusing on one match at a time. That's what I've been preaching. It's something you've got to do if you want to be good. If you get too far ahead of yourself, in this game with rally scoring, teams can take a game here or there from you and all of a suddenly you can find yourself down."
Juniata got ahead early jumping out to a 7-2 lead off the service of freshman Kelly Reynolds (Upper Saint Clair, Pa./Upper Saint Clair). Senior Amy Miller (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) paced the Eagles with a match-high 10 kills and a stellar .500 attack percentage.
"Amy's been really steady in every way," said Pavlik. "She played libero this past weekend and she passed amazingly. I moved her back to outside hitter and she was extremely productive tonight hitting the ball. No matter what we've asked her to do she's been really good. That's great leadership that she's showing to the younger players. This is how you do it. This is what it means to be a college athlete and this is what it means to be a Juniata volleyball player."
Miller and Reynolds led match with three service aces apiece. The second set started out just like the first with the Eagles grabbing a commanding 12-3 lead. At 16-13 advantage Juniata, the Eagles sided out and sophomore Bryce Arnold (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg Area) served out the set. Juniata finished off the match thanks to a solid overall performance from junior Christine Sumner (Dublin, Ohio/Bishop Watterson), who ended the night with six kills and a .455-attack percentage.
"Chris played great," said Pavlik. "Chris does a really good job of knowing what her job is and only worry about that. Chris' job is to be great in transition and that is what she does really well. She's a very steady player. She's not someone that goes through a lot of ups and down. She's very steady and people know what to expect from her. That makes her really easy to play with."
Juniata will take part in the Christopher Newport Invitational this weekend where it will face off against No. 19 Christopher Newport on Friday, and No. 17 Wisconsin-Whitewater and the University of Scranton on Saturday.
"There are going to be good matches this weekend and there is going to be more than one of them," added Pavlik. "This team right now is starting to understand that we're playing a little better defense therefore transition becomes really important and transition hitting becomes really important. They understand how hard we have to work in transition and how detail oriented we have to be. I think our blocking game is also starting to come around a little bit and that is something we've been spending time on. The teams we are going to see will certainly do a good job of digging a lot of balls themselves. They are going to stay in system pretty well and that means they are going to challenge our defense and our block."
The Eagles next return home October 2, at 7 p.m. to face Geneva College in the Juniata's annual Dig Pink evening.
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