SALEM, Va. - The Juniata women's volleyball team cemented their status as a dynasty as they topped the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 3-2 (25-19, 25-19, 15-25, 26-28, 15-10), Saturday evening to win their third consecutive NCAA National Championship.
Set one was comfortably controlled by the Eagles. It began with separate 5-1 and 5-0 runs, where the Warhawks scored two points in between, giving the Eagles a 10-3 lead. The Warhawks controlled the middle part of the set and closed down the lead to two at 12-10 and 13-11 a couple of points later. The Eagles went on another run just as Wisconsin-Whitewater got close. This time, a 7-2 run re-established their seven-point lead from earlier in the set, 20-13. Despite a late push from the Warhawks, there was too much ground to make up, and the Eagles cruised to a 25-19 set one victory. Lily Podolan made the kill on set point.
Set two continued to favor the Eagles, although the Warhawks started this one on the front foot. An opening three-point burst turned into a 2-4 lead for the Warhawks early. The Eagles quickly responded this time, going on a four-point burst to take a two-point lead of their own, 6-4. The teams traded points until they reached a 10-10 tie, where the Eagles went on another 4-0 run to regain a lead they wouldn't give up for the rest of the set. Each time Wisconsin-Whitewater won a point, the Eagles always had an answer. They prevented them from going on any significant run to come back and came away with another 25-19 set win. This time, Courtney Williams sealed the deal with a kill on the final point.
With their season on the line, Wisconsin-Whitewater took command of set three. After Juniata jumped out to a 3-0 lead, the Warhawks went on a 9-2 run to establish a four-point cushion. Their lead ballooned to nine after a 0-5 run later in the set, the scoreline reading 10-19. Juniata fought hard but was unable to overcome the deficit. The Warhawks took set three, 25-15.
Set four was very closely contested. Neither team held more than a three-point lead for the entire set. That three-point lead belonged to the Eagles early when they went on a 4-1 run to lead 5-2. The teams traded points, and the Eagles maintained their slight lead well into the set. Wisconsin-Whitewater kept it close, though, and they took their first lead at 11-12. After a 4-1 run by the Eagles and a 5-1 run by the Warhawks, Wisconsin-Whitewater regained their small lead up 16-18. The Eagles won two crucial points to tie the game 18-18 and tied it up again 19-19 and 20-20 after going down twice. A 2-0 run gave the Eagles a two-point lead, 22-20, but the Warhawks responded quickly, coming within one point on three separate occasions. At 24-23, the Warhawks made a crucial block to tie the game again 24-24. In a win-by-two situation, the game rested on a knife's edge. Mackenzie Coley made a clutch kill on the outside to put the Eagles up 25-24, but the Warhawks responded again to tie it up. Kennedy Christy then spiked one home from the back line to put the Eagles ahead again. The next point was initially called out of bounds after a Warhawks hit landed along the Eagles baseline, meaning the Eagles were national champions, but Wisconsin-Whitewater challenged the ruling, and the call was overturned. At 26-26, the Warhawks converted on a kill and a Juniata attack error to take set four, 26-28. The fourth set was a back-and-forth thriller, as the teams tied 11 times and exchanged the lead five times.
Set five opened with a side out by Juniata as Williams smashed a ball down into the back left side of the Warhawk defense. Coley went off the block, and Podolan crushed two balls, one off the hands of a back row defender and the other off the block, as JC built a quick 4-0 run. Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez did her part from the service line as she kept the Warhawks guessing. Coley added another kill from the middle, and Podolan walloped another ball off the block. The Warhawks called timeout, but JC assault kept coming. Rousset-Hernandez dug a ball that wound up another Podolan kill, and the senior opposite tooled the block again.
An attack error from the Warhawks made it 8-0. Wisconsin-Whitewater got within five at 11-6, but the Eagles responded as Mia Schubert lunged forward to prevent an ace. Foley set Audrey Muth, who found a spot down the line in the back corner to make it 12-6. Podolan dropped another bomb in the middle of the Warhawk defense to bring JC within two points of volleyball immortality. A Wisconsin-Whitewater attack error put Juniata on match point. The Riverhawks fought off four of them to make it 14-10, but an attack error ended the match and sent the Eagles into euphoria.
Christy was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, while Foley and Coley joined her on the all-tournament team. Christy had 18 kills (.286) with 12 digs, two aces, and a block assist, while Coley contributed 19 kills (.341), a dig, a solo block, and two block assists. Podolan added 14 kills (.257) with three digs, and Williams tallied seven kills (.235) with two block assists. Foley had 56 assists, 18 digs, a kill, an ace, and two block assists, while Rousset-Hernandez totaled 19 digs, four assists, and two aces.
Head coach Heather Pavlik '95, fresh off being named the AVCA Coach of the Year, slides National Championship number three into her trophy case as head coach. She has been on the sideline for all five and was the associate head coach for the 2004 and 2006 teams. Associate head coach and two-time AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year Casey Dale '07 claims his fourth on the bench for the Eagles, with his first coming as a student assistant in 2006. Assistant Coach Erin Smith adds her second national championship to her name, in her second year on staff.
The team finishes 35-0 for the second consecutive year, winning 97 straight matches. This season they won 29 matches via sweep. Juniata is the first team to win three straight national championships since Central (Iowa) 1998-2000. No team in the history of Division III women's volleyball has gone undefeated in consecutive years. They are the fifth perfect season in NCAA Division III women's volleyball history (2023, 2019, 1999, 1992).
This group of graduate students and seniors ends their time in the Blue and Gold 136-3, having dropped 44 sets over four years and a perfect 67-0 on their home floor, having won three national championships and reached a Final Four the other year. The junior class is 104-1, while the rising sophomores have zero matches and lost just 13 sets. The first-years are undefeated in their careers, having dropped seven sets total.
An incredible group, they head off into the offseason in a position they haven't relinquished in two years: the best team in the country.
