NEWARK, N.J.- The #11 Juniata men's volleyball team battled valiantly but ultimately were defeated by #7 Southern Virginia in the CVC Semifinals, 3-1 (25-18, 31-33, 18-25, 18-25), Friday evening in the Golden Dome on the campus of Rutgers-Newark.
Will Phelan (Saegertown, Pa. / Saegertown HS) had a season-high 19 kills while hitting .325 with an ace and nine digs, while Tyler Goldsborough (Reading, Pa. / Exeter Township HS) totaled 16 kills, two aces, a solo block, and a block assist. Peter Carioto (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny HS) matched his season-high with 14 digs as he kept points alive constantly for JC, while Luke Hoffman (Reading, Pa. / Exeter Township HS) tallied nine kills while hitting .533, a solo block, and a block assist. Reese Ganter (Reading, Pa. / Exeter Township HS) amassed 48 assists with an ace and seven digs.
The opening set saw Juniata hit a blistering .444 while racking up 18 kills with two errors. With the score knotted at 10-10, two kills from Kevin Duffy III (Carlisle, Pa. / Carlisle HS) and Goldsborough, along with one from Phelan, put the Eagles ahead for good. Two service errors gave the Knights some points, but Hoffman put down two kills around an SVU attack error to make it 19-12. Juniata took set one on a kill from Phelan.
Set two was a marathon, which featured 16 ties and eight lead changes. Trailing 23-24, Duffy put down another kill, followed by Goldsborough serving up his 44th ace of the season to give JC set point. A service error kept the set alive, and the Knights did not waste the opportunity. JC would get one more look at set point at 31-30, but a kill and an ace put SVU up 32-31 before one more kill handed the Knights the set.
Set three saw SVU have their best hitting set of the match at .448 as they pulled away in the later parts of the set to go up two sets to one. Phelan did his part to try and keep JC in it as he compiled eight kills in the set.
The final set of the match was tight through the first half as JC tried to get to a fifth set, with a block from Hoffman tying the score at 15-15. From there, SVU went on a 10-3 sprint to close out the match.
Juniata now stands at 26-6 on the year.
