ARLINGTON, Va.- The #2 Juniata men's volleyball team fended off a persistent Marymount side in a back-and-forth five-set win (22-25, 25-20, 28-26, 23-25, 15-10) to open CVC play in 2023.
Maxwell Barr led the Juniata attack in the contest with a team-high and career-high 16 kills and a .313 hitting percentage. He also had a block assist and seven digs on defense. Tyler Goldsborough also posted double-digit kills with 13.
Luke Hoffman led the Eagles in both aces with four and block with four (one solo, three block assists). Max Cooley had a team-high 11 digs, while Reese Ganter provided 35 assists in the contest.
The Eagles hit .189 on the evening, struggling with a season-high 35 attack errors. They were relatively strong in the sets they secured with .476, .118, and .538 hitting percentages in their set victories.
Set one saw Juniata hit a match-low .034 with eight kills as the Saints claimed the first 22-25. It took just two Saints kills for the opponents to rack up a 2-9 lead in the first set during a stretch with three Saints aces and three Juniata attack errors. The Eagles finally broke a seven-point streak on a Cooley kill before giving up two more. Juniata finally broke the Marymount momentum with five straight points that included two Drew Hunker kills for an 8-11 score.
The Eagles stayed within three up to 11-14, but Marymount began to draw a moderate margin in the middle stages, getting to a 17-23 lead. A Saint service error followed by a Ganter-Hoffman block put Juniata down four. Marymount scored a point, followed by three consecutive Eagles points for a 22-24 score. The Saints grabbed a statement set-one win with a kill on the next serve.
Juniata got level at one apiece in the second set as they hit .476 in a 25-20 win. The sides traded points several times early up to an 8-8 draw. Juniata then collected point points on a Barr kill and Hoffman block.
The sides traded points for a bit, followed by four straight that included three consecutive Hoffman aces for a 15-10 lead. The lead stayed stagnant at around five points up to a four points Saints run with two kills followed by two blocks for a slim 19-17 lead. The sides traded points for a few serves before a three-point run that saw a Saints service error, setting error, and attacking error gave Juniata a set win.
Marymount trailed for much of the third set but forced enough pressure to take the set to a 28-26 scoreline in favor of the Eagles, as Juniata fired in a match-high 14 kills against a match-high 11 attack errors. The teams traded the leads a couple of teams early, with neither going ahead by more than two up to a 10-10 stalemate.
Ganter and Cooley collected a kill in a four-point run, followed by a Marymount three-point run for a 14-13 Juniata lead. The Eagles broke the run with a Barr kill, and the team returned to trading points up to a 21-20 Juniata lead. The Eagles proceeded to benefit from a service error, gain a point on a Ganter kill, conceded a service error, and reach the set point on a Barr kill.
Three Eagles attack errors and a setting error put Marymount ahead 24-25, with a Barr kill getting Juniata tied. The Saints posted a kill followed by another Barr kill and two attack errors for a Juniata set-three win.
A moderate lead in the middle stages for Marymount was maintained to the finish line as they forced set four 23-25 with a match-high .290 hitting percentage. A couple of Saints blocks gave them a 5-2 lead that they built to a three-to-four-point advantage that stood for much of the middle stages. A three-point run at 17-21 put them two points from set point, followed by a 6-1 Juniata rally with a kill from Kevin Duffy III and Hoffman and two Saints attack errors. Down 23-24, Juniata committed a service error that forced set five.
The Eagles were a match-best .536 in set five with ten kills. Juniata led a narrow race in the early parts of the set before finally storming away following the change of sides at 8-7. Up to that point, Cooley and Barr tallied two kills each. The Saints returned from the side change with a kill followed by three straight Eagles points on a Goldsborough kill and block with a Saints attack error for an 11-8 lead. It was then two Saints points, four straight Eagles points, as Austin Goodsel set Goldsborough for the match-winning kill.
The win maintains Juniata's program-best winning streak and the best start to a season with a 12-0 record, as they picked up a ninth-straight win over Marymount. The Saints entered the week receiving votes in the AVCA poll and 20th in FrogJump's rankings.
Juniata gets a week's break before turning to competition in the Eagle Invite in Huntingdon. They play Penn State Altoona Friday at 7:00 pm, RV / #19 Southern Virginia at 11 am on Saturday for a CVC conference bout, and Elizabethtown in a non-conference meeting at 3:00 pm on Saturday.
