Eagles Roll Past Mary Washington, SUNY Brockport on Day Two of the Messiah Invitational

MECHANICSBURG, Pa.- The #11 Juniata women's volleyball team continued their winning ways with a pair of wins over Mary Washington and SUNY Brockport on day two of the Messiah Invitational, Saturday afternoon.

They defeated Mary Washington 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 27-25, 25-17) before besting Brockport 3-0 (25-15, 25-11, 25-16). 

In the first set against Mary Washington, Juniata jumped out to 10-4 lead, but Mary Washington got within two at 11-9 and hung around for most of the set. Two straight MW kills caused JC to call timeout with the score at 19-8. Two errors from Mary Washington forced them to call timeout, but Lily Podolan (Columbus, Ohio / Worthington Kilbourne) put down to kills to make it 23-18. A Podolan kill would eventually give JC the set one win, 25-19. 

Juniata never led in the second set, pulling even at 15-15, but the team could never retake the lead as they dropped the second set 20-25.  

The third set was also in peril for the Eagles early as they fell behind 6-3 early but managed to momentarily right the ship as kills from Podolan and Grace Erskine (Mooresville, N.C. / Community School of Davidson) made it 11-11. MW pulled ahead again and wound up reaching set point, 21-24. Kills from Victoria Taylor (Middletown, Del. / Delaware Military Academy) and Podolan made it 23-24, and following a Mary Washington timeout, they committed a ball handling error to make it 24-24. A kill gave them the lead for a moment before they committed two errors to hand JC set point, and Kennedy Christy (Saxonburg, Pa. / Knoch HS) tallied a kill to clinch the third set, 27-25. 

Juniata cruised through the fourth, surging ahead to a 12-3 lead and never letting Mary Washington get closer than five as they won the fourth set 25-17 to take the match. 

The Eagles opened the second match against Brockport by hitting an efficient .364 as a team to take set one 25-15. 

The second set saw them continue to dominate as a 16-5 start saw them cruise to a set two win, 25-11. 

The Eagles trailed 8-10 early in the third set, but a 7-0 run put them back in the lead to stay. With the score at 22-15, kills from Brianne Carmody (Midlothian, Va. / James River) and Olivia Everett (Grove City, Ohio / Central Crossing HS) ended the match. 

The Eagles now sit at 11-1, which is their best record at the end of September since 2015. 

They will begin conference play next Saturday when they take on Moravian at 11:00 and Drew at 6:30.