Eagles Defeat Saints, 3-1

ARLINGTON, VA- Playing in its second match in as many days on the road, the Juniata men's volleyball team played Marymount on Saturday night at the Verizon Sports Arena. The match went to four sets and Juniata was able to come away with a 3-1 victory (25-17, 25-16, 21-25, 25-15).

The Eagles improve their record to 15-2 overall and are 7-0 in the Continental Volleyball Conference. The Saints drop to 6-10 and 2-4 in the CVC.

Joe Bortak (Jeanette, PA/Penn Traford) led the offense with 14 kills on the night. Justin Waldorf (Eden, NY/Eden) chipped in 11 kills and also had a season-high five block assists. Paul Kuhn (York, PA/Central York) tallied nine kills. Tommy Keisling (Sewickley, PA/North Allegheny) led the defense with 12 digs. Matt Elias (Lansdale, PA/North Penn) had 50 assists and 10 digs.

After falling behind 4-3 in the first set, the Eagles came back to score seven straight points to take a 10-5 lead. The JC lead soon grew to 14-7 and expanded to 20-12. The Saints could get no closer than six points as the Eagles won to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

Much like the first set, the host Saints went up 4-3 but the Eagles again came back to go ahead 7-4.  With a 13-9 lead, Juniata tacked on three more points to go up 16-9. Marymount was only able to get to within five points but JC pulled away in the end to go up 2-0.

Marymount broke a 10-10 tie in the third frame with two straight points to go ahead 12-10.  Its lead lasted throughout the game as the Eagles were unable to come back and conceded to the hosts.

The Saints got out to a 5-1 lead in the fourth set. Juniata battled back to tie and go ahead 11-7. Marymount got as close as 17-13 but an 8-2 run by the Eagles was too much as Juniata took the set and the match.

The Eagles return to Memorial Gymnasium on Tuesday night to host Thiel in a CVC match. Start time will be at 6 p.m.