PITTSBURGH, Pa.- The Juniata women's volleyball team emerged victorious against the University of Northwestern (St. Paul), 3-1, in front of a large Juniata contingent Thursday evening inside of UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on the campus of Duquesne University.
Going for the gold on Saturday ��#WingsUo #GoEagles #TakingFlight pic.twitter.com/lVeggEPxLK
— Juniata Athletics (@JuniataEagles) November 18, 2022
With the victory, Juniata will take on Trinity University in the national championship Saturday at 7:00 at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
Northwestern started on a 7-2 run as Juniata found themselves in an early hole. Kennedy Christy and Mackenzie Coley tallied kills; Christy stepped to the service line and promptly tacked on two consecutive aces, with the second landing just in on the end line to make it 6-7. On the next point, a tough Olivia Foley set allowed Audrey Muth to mash a kill and knot things at 7-7. A ballhandling error and a kill from Muth pushed the lead back to two. Northwestern took the next two points to knot things at 9-9, but two UNW errors and two Muth kills sent JC back up by four. A flurry from UNW knotted things at 13-13, but JC would take over from this point. Christy crushed a ball from the back row, and Lily Podolan and Coley combined for a block. On the next point, Foley kept the ball alive on a tip by UNW and later would set Courtney Williams, who placed a ball perfectly where there were no UNW players. With the score at 18-15, JC did not allow UNW to score again. Christy detonated on another ball that caromed off a UNW player to make it 19-15, and Podolan followed with another kill in the back corner. A Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez ace gave JC set point, and Podolan ended things with her fourth kill in the run, 25-15. Juniata held UNW to a -0.027 hitting percentage.
UNW rode strong serving in the second set, including five straight aces to push ahead 2-7. Juniata slowly chipped away at the deficit, with the score at 16-13; an error from UNW, along with two Rousset-Hernandez aces and another Christy kill from the back row, brought the Eagles even with UNW, 16-16. The teams would go back and forth down the stretch, with a UNW attack error giving JC a late one-point edge at 22-21. But UNW rattled off four unanswered to close the second, 22-25, and knot the game at one set apiece.
The third set saw the Eagles find success early tooling the block as they notched several kills that way. Another Christy ace made it 8-3; Coley obliterated a ball, UNW committed an error, and Coley stuffed a ball that just landed to make it 11-4. Juniata continued to dominate the set as UNW had no answers. JC took set three 25-11 as they hit .364 to UNW's -.25.
Set four was the tightest of the match, and the ending was a nail-biter. Neither team led by more than three after an early 8-4 lead held by JC. The teams traded haymakers the rest of the way, with an error tying things at 19-19. Muth put a ball through the floor, Foley avoided most of her teammates to get to the ball and set Williams, who smashed a ball straight down before Podolan sent a ball into the open left corner of the UNW court to make it 22-19. UNW took the following three points a kill, a block, and a JC attack error. Muth continued to dominate as she put down another kill, and Podolan found a seam in the defense to put the ball in and give JC match point. UNW took the next point before Podolan smashed a ball into the back of the court towards the UNW endline to send Juniata to the national championship, 25-23.
Juniata served exceptionally well in the match, with 16 aces total.
Juniata will be making the program's ninth appearance in the national championship, the first since 2009, which means it is the first with head coach Heather Pavlik at the helm.
Having won 26 straight matches, Juniata sits at 33-1 on the year heading into the national championship match against Trinity.
