Next Stop, California: Women's Volleyball Wins NCAA Huntingdon Regional to Advance to Elite 8

HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The #1 Juniata women's volleyball team is headed to California following their 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-12) win over Mary Washington Saturday evening in the NCAA Sweet 16 in a raucous Memorial Gymnasium. 

Early in the first set, holding a 4-3 lead, kills from Kennedy Christy and Audrey Muth, along with a Christy ace and a Mary Washington attack error, lengthened the JC advantage to five. Two visitor kills bookended JC kills from Muth and Courtney Williams. Muth and Williams struck again, along with Lily Podolan, and another Mary Washington attack error made it 14-5. JC nursed the lead the rest of the way, and the teams traded points down the stretch as Juniata took set one on a Mackenzie Coley kill, 25-18. 

Mary Washington led by as many as four in the second set, at one point leading 8-12. They committed an attack error, Coley found a hole in the defense in the back row for a kill, and Christy dropped in an ace. Mary Washington took the next point before Coley bopped another kill; Sophia Repholz entered and immediately added an ace of her own. An error gave Mary Washington the next point, but the Eagles took charge from there. Muth stuffed a ball for a solo block, Podolan crushed a ball off a Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez pass, Olivia Foley got in on ace action, the visitors committed two straight errors, and Muth smashed another ball into the floor off a Christy assist to make it 21-14. Juniata took the second set, 25-20, on another Coley set-ending kill.  

In set three, the Eagles were rolling, and they applied the clamps as they have done all year, holding Mary Washington to .000 in the set and holding them to just 12 points. Muth's 11^th kill of the match ended the match and punched the Eagles ticket to the Elite 8. 

Foley was named Most Outstanding Player of the regional, while Rousset-Hernandez and Coley joined her on the all-tournament team. 

The win puts the Eagles at 32-0, with the winning streak at 59. 

This will be the 33^rd time the Juniata women's volleyball team has appeared in the Elite 8 and the third consecutive year. The women's volleyball team closes the home portion of their year 17-0 in the comfortable confines of Memorial Gymnasium, which is the third straight year of them going unbeaten in Huntingdon.  

The Eagles will play in the Elite 8 hosted by Claremont Mudd Scripps in Claremont, California November 29^th, with game time and opponent TBA.