Newport News, VA.- Juniata's women's volleyball team took two wins out of two in the opening weekend of their 2024-25 season over William Patterson University and Johns Hopkins University.

Coming off a win at Christopher Newport University on Friday, the team stayed at their facilities to play the doubleheader on Saturday. Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez, Olivia Foley, and Kennedy Christy earned all-tournament honors, with Christy being named MVP of the tournament.

First, the Eagles played the Bears of William Patterson at 11:00 a.m.

In the match Mia Schubert led with 12 kills and Abbey Telesz led with 26 assists and 14 digs, while Emily Sullivan contributed an efficient kill percentage of .625.  

An 11-2 start helped Juniata take the first set 25-14, where Schubert found five of her 12 kills in the match.

Set two began 7-2 in favor of the Eagles, but the Bears made it much closer down the stretch. After the Bears reached set point at 23-24, the Eagles won three key points in a row to pull away and win the set 26-24. Two came from attack errors, and the winning point came from a Maggie Hayes kill and a Telesz assist. 

The Eagles finished the sweep in set three, but not without adversity from the Bears. Many points were tightly contested down the stretch, and the Bears came within two points at 20-22. Their efforts were strong but not enough to overcome the Eagles, who won the final set 25-22 for a 3-0 sweep in game one of the doubleheader. 

In the afternoon, the Eagles faced up against the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays at 3:30 p.m.

This time, Christy led with 16 kills, Foley led with 43 assists, and Rousset-Hernandez contributed 20 digs, proving their worth for the all-tournament selection.

The match went four sets, as the Eagles gave up their first set of the year in set two to the Blue Jays 21-25. The Eagles won sets one, three and four by scores of 25-16, 25-15 and 25-12.

Juniata began to pull away after the first ten points went back and forth in the opening set. Separate four and five-point runs gave the Eagles the edge to lead 1-0.

The Blue Jays responded well in set two, although the Eagles kept it close the whole way. Juniata held a three-point lead at 13-10 before the Blue Jays tied it up 14-14. From there, the Blue Jays edged past the Eagles, winning five of the last eight points in the set.

At 1-1, the back-to-back national champions would not go down easy, and they responded in sets three and four with 6-3 and 6-1 starts, respectively. Prior to Christy's kill in set one, Foley recorded both set-winning points on a service ace and a kill assisted by Schubert to lead the Eagles to the 3-1 victory.

Now 3-0, the Eagles will come home to take on Ohio Northern in the ASICS Invitational on Friday, where the 2023-24 national championship banner will be raised prior the match. 

The team's winning streak, spanning the last two seasons, sits at 65. The NCAA Division III record, held by Johns Hopkins set back 2021, is 66.