SELINSGROVE, Pa. - The Juniata women's volleyball team split a pair of Landmark Conference matches, falling 3-2 to Scranton before sweeping Susquehanna 3-0, Saturday at OW Houts Gymnasium.
Against Scranton, Victoria Taylor (Middletown, Del./Delaware Valley Military Academy) had a team high 15 kills and a block assist. Marybeth Weihbrecht (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) had 14 kills, hit .440 and added three block assists. Alyssa Tavera (Whittier, Calif, La Salle HS) had 28 assists and 18 digs while Katie Byrne (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) added 25 digs and three aces.
The first set saw Juniata create some separation after the Royals pulled within two at 7-5. The Eagles scored six of the next seven points behind two kills by Marie Gonsar (New Castle, Pa./Shenango H.S.), a kill by Rachel Boe (San Carlos, Calif/Saint Francis) and a couple Scranton errors. The Royals clawed back into it and hung around, eventually narrowing the gap to three at 22-19. The teams traded points to make it set point at 24-20 and Weihbrecht got a kill off a pass from Tavera to help the Eagles take set one, 25-20.
Juniata opened the second set on a 11-3 run and Scranton called timeout. The Royals got back in the match, and after a Juniata error made it 14-11 the Eagles took a timeout. Juniata managed to maintain their lead and narrowly take the second set, 26-24.
The Royals scored the first six points of the third set and it looked like the route was on. Juniata managed to pull within three at 8-11, but Scranton cruised to a 12-25 victory. In a tight fourth set, with the score at 13-15, the Royals took five of the next six points to go up 14-20 and cruised to a 25-18 win to force a fifth set.
In the decisive set, Juniata battled to get head early, and at one point led, 7-4, but the Royals called timeout. They scored the next three points to tie the score at 7-7. Juniata went on a 5-1 run to take a 12-8 lead, but the Scranton closed the match on a 7-1 run as they took the final set 15-13.
The loss is the first for Juniata in the Landmark, as they were a perfect 65-0 in regular season conference play. Looking further back, the Eagles had not lost to a conference opponent in regular season play of any kind (Landmark/MAC) since losing to Gettysburg 1-2 November 8th, 1981.
The Eagles dispatched the River Hawks in three in the final game of the day, 25-14, 25-12 and 25-17. Weihbrecht had nine kills, Taylor had eight while Morgan Edwards (Lancaster, Pa./Penn Manor) had eight. Boe tallied eight kills while Chelsea Scafuro (Geneva, Ohio/Geneva) notched six.
Juniata finishes the regular season 21-8 and atop the Landmark Conference. They will host Moravian in the Landmark Semifinals, Wednesday at 7:00.