HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The #1 Juniata women's volleyball team picked up a pair of victories as they unveiled their National Championship banner on day one of the 30th annual ASICS Invitational Friday evening inside Memorial Gymnasium.
The Eagles swept #25 Christopher Newport 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 26-24) in a rematch of last year's Sweet 16 duel before toppling #10 Berry 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-12).
In set one, with the match deadlocked 5-5, Courtney Williams put down a kill, and Lily Podolan combined with her for a block. Audrey Muth tallied two straight kills, the teams traded errors before Mackenzie Coley had back-to-back kills, and the Captains committed two ball-handling errors to make it 15-7. The visitors tallied a kill before Kennedy Christy added two straight kills to put Juniata up 10, 18-8. JC saw off the rest of the set, winning 25-19.
Set two, with the score at 13-12, saw the Eagles blow the Captains away with a 14-2 run that ended with a pair of CNU errors. Juniata hit .650 in the set and held the Captains to .000.
Set three was a much tighter affair as CNU tried to extend the match and used a 5-0 late flurry to pull even at 23-23. The Eagles did what they do best as they eked out a 26-24 set three win to seal the match.
Coley had a big day hitting the ball as she went for 11 kills on 19 swings with no errors (.579) to go with a solo block and a block assist. Christy had nine kills (.300), two aces, six digs, and a block assist, while Muth totaled nine kills, two digs, and a solo block.
In the second match of the day against Berry, a 9-2 run midway through the set was capped by a kill from Christy that put JC ahead by five, 17-12. The Eagles nursed the lead the rest of the way, winning on a Sydney Ohl ace, 25-16.
The Vikings put up a fight in the second set, never trailing by more than five until the late stages of the set. Leading 20-17, kills from Williams & Podolan around an Ohl ace gave JC their largest lead of the set, and they maintained that advantage to a 25-19 win on another Podolan kill.
The third set of the match saw the Eagles rampage out to an 11-3 lead and never look back. Later, with the score at 17-11, JC ripped off another seven straight points to get to match point and took the match on Podolan's 12th kill of the match.
Coley had another big game as she put up 13 kills (.458) to go with a dig and two block assists. Podolan chipped in with 12 kills (.308 and a dig). Olivia Foley accumulated 38 assists, five kills, and 16 digs, while Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez amassed 21 digs, six assists, and an ace.
The Eagles will close the ASICS Invitational against Carnegie Melon at 4:00 on Saturday.
