ROCHESTER, NY- The #7 Juniata women's volleyball team dispatched Gallaudet 3-0 (25-10, 25-11, 25-13) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Rochester Institute of Technology Friday afternoon.
Victoria Taylor (Middletown, Del. / Delaware Military Academy) opened the NCAA Tournament scoring for JC with a no-doubt-about-it kill, and the Eagles soared out to a 10-4 lead. The Bison got within four, but Juniata managed to gradually increase the lead as Gallaudet had no answer for the JC middles. A big kill from Mackenzie Coley (Norco, Calif. / Norco HS) made it 21-10, two errors from the Bison and another Coley kill had JC at set point. Olivia Foley (Coldwater, Mich / Coldwater HS) perfectly dumped the ball in the middle of the Bison defense to end set one, 25-10.
The Bison led 1-3 early before a kill from Aly Reardon (Downingtown, Pa. / Downingtown West HS) and another Coley along with a block by the two of them made it 4-4. It was back and forth for a while before two kills from Taylor and a pair of Bison errors made 13-7. The Bison captured the next point, and Juniata responded by taking the next seven. Gallaudet committed a service error, Lily Podolan (Columbus, Ohio / Worthington Kilbourne) put three kills, Foley served up two aces, and the Bison committed an attack error to make it 20-8. With Juniata holding set point, Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez (Rio Grande, Puerto Rico / Colegio Bautista de Carolina HS) dumped a ball for the final point of set two, 25-11.
Juniata scored the first six points of the third set and never looked back as they cruised to a 25-13 win in set three to win the match.
@JuniataWVB Reardon with the kill to wrap up the day!!
— Juniata Athletics (@JuniataEagles) November 12, 2021
MOVING ON ➡️➡️➡️ after the ��SWEEP��
JC will take on Babson tomorrow 2:30, the same link Eagle fans! ��#GoEagles #WingsUp #TakingFlight pic.twitter.com/nYytXYlGZO
Juniata hit a dominant .395 while holding Gallaudet to -.027. The win extends the Eagle winning streak to 28 consecutive games.
Juniata will face Babson, tomorrow at 2:30 with the winner advancing to the Sweet 16.