#1 Eagles Come Back to Knock Off #5 Carthage

KENOSHA, WI- Down two sets to one, the Juniata men's volleyball team rallied to win the last two sets and hold off #5 Carthage 3-2 (26-24, 17-25, 18-25, 25-16, 15-9). The Eagles remain undefeated at 7-0 while the Red Men fall to 2-2.

Justin Waldorf (Eden, NY/Eden) and Joe Bortak (Jeanette, PA/Penn Trafford) led the Eagles in kills with nine kills. Bortak also picked up four block assists. Paul Kuhn (York, PA/Central York) and Kyle Seeley (Ellicott City, MD/Howard) both added eight kills with Seeley totaling five block assists.

Tommy Keisling (Sewickley, PA/North Allegheny) led in digs with seven. Ryan Shelton (Baldwinsville, NY/Baldswinsville) chipped six digs while totaling 33 assists.

The Redmen led early in the first set. Carthage continued to hold a slight lead despite Juniata answering them point for point. The Redmen were ahead 22-19 before JC put up four straight points to go ahead 23-22. The match would be tied up 24-24 but a service error on Carthage followed by a an attack error gave the Eagles the two points they need to take the first game.

Carthage led for all of the second set to even the match up at 1-1 and then led for the whole third set to go ahead 2-1. The fourth set was a different story as the Eagles jumped on the Red Men in the early stages with a lead that grew to as much as 10-2. Carthage was able to keep it at a six-point advantage several times with the final time coming at 20-14. A 5-2 run by the Eagles was too much and the match now stood at 2-2.

The match now went to a deciding fifth set. The JC lead stood at 10-7 but Carthage was able to get within two points, 10-8. A four-point surge by the Eagles got them to 14-8 and one point away from completing the comeback. A Carthage kill narrowed the score to 14-9 but Chad Albert's (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) kill was the exclamation point for the Eagles as they took the game 15-9 and won the match.

The Eagles will head to Union, NJ next weekend to compete in the Kean Invitational. Juniata will face the host Cougars at 6 p.m. on Friday.