Juniata men’s volleyball downs George Mason in five-set thriller

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata College men's volleyball outhit and outblocked visiting George Mason University to upend the Division I Patriots, 3-2, as both Eagle volleyball programs paid tribute to former coach Larry Bock on Saturday night at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center.

Set scores for Juniata were 24-26, 20-25, 25-15, 25-19, and 15-13.

Bock was formally inducted into the Juniata College Sports Hall of Fame, and a banner recognizing his coaching legacy was hoisted into the rafters of the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center. He was Juniata's women's volleyball coach for 34 seasons, posting a mark of 1,252 wins and 192 losses.  Bock then founded Juniata's men's volleyball program in 1990 and coached the team through its first six seasons, recording 100 wins, 91 losses, and four ties.

Bock's combined record of 1,352 wins, 283 losses, and four ties at Juniata made his collegiate volleyball's all-time leader in victories.

The current Juniata (8-3) men's team seemed to find inspiration in the ceremonies for Bock, which occurred between the second and third sets.

After dropping the first two sets despite outhitting George Mason (3-5) in the first set, Juniata came roaring back in set three. The Eagles broke open a three-point set with a Ross Madden (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) and Ben Wolff (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) block followed by a Madden ace to take a 15-10 lead.

Later in the set, Juniata regained serve on a Mason attack error and rattled off the next three points behind Wolff's serve to stretch the lead to 19-11. Five straight side out points advanced the score to 21-15, but a Patriot attack error gave service to the Eagles' Cameron Andrew (Dallas, Texas/The Greenhill School) at 22-15.  A John Almquist (York, Pa./Central York) kill, an Andrew ace, and a GMU attack miscue allowed Juniata to seal the set.

Juniata jumped out of a 6-1 lead in set four, aided in part by a George Mason rotation error, and then simply stayed ahead of the Patriots the rest of the way for the win. Back-to-back kills by Madden to open set were quickly followed by a pair of Wolff terminations, with the two then combining on a double block at 6-1.

The Eagles led by as much as six, 20-14, later in the set, but four straight Patriot points closed the margin to 20-18 before a Mike Kraft (York, Pa./Eastern York) ended the George Mason run. Kraft served Juniata to its next three points, one of which was an ace, to reach set point. After a side out kill by Mason's Joe Norton, the Eagles seized the set with a GMU attack error to force set five.

Juniata broke a 3-3 tie in set five with a Wolff kill and a Wolff-Kraft double block to take a 5-3 lead, and later stretched the lead to 7-4 with another Wolff termination and a double block by Paul Ejups (Bay Shore, N.Y./West Islip) and Joe Bortak (Jeannette, Pa./Penn Trafford).

George Mason got some of those points back with a three-point run that left Juniata with a 9-8 lead, before an Almquist kill sided out for the Eagles at 10-8. From there, the two teams traded 10 straight side out points, with Juniata clinching the win on a Mason attack error.

Wolff led the Eagles with 20 kills on 30 swings for a .633 attack percentage, and charted seven total blocks. Madden finished with 11 kills and four blocks, while Bortak tallied nine kills and five blocks.

Almquist recorded 50 assists while running a Juniata offense that hit .307 for the match, compared to Mason's .205 attack rate.  Almquist also led the Eagles with 13 digs, while Eric McCarthy (Villa Park, Ill./Willowbrook) sprawled for 10.

George Mason was led by Mark Jones with 21 kills behind a .216 hitting percentage, while Norton finished the night with 20. Max McFarland ended up with 13 kills.

Juniata is idle this coming weekend, and returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 18, when it travels to Hoboken, N.J., to face Stevens and New Jersey City University in a round robin series hosted by Stevens.  The Eagles will face the host Ducks at 12:00 p.m., with a match against NJCU slated for 2:00 p.m.

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