Juniata Men’s Volleyball Picks Up First Win

HUNTINGDON, Pa. Hosting their first home match of the season, the Juniata men's volleyball got a big boost from the home crowd as they defeated Eastern Mennonite 3-1 for their first victory of the season. After trailing 0-1 after the first set, the Eagles rallied with a big victory in the second set 32-20 and then took the third and fourth frames with scores of 25-17 and 25-14.

Juniata was down in the first set and rallied but ultimately fell short. JC was ahead in the second set 8-6 but fell behind 14-11 after a rally by the Royals. A big 8-0 run by the Eagles put them up 19-14. EMU battled back to knot the frame up at 19-all. Juniata was a point away from dropping the second set but a two-point rally knotted the set at 24-24. Five times the Eagles reached set point but failed the put the Royals away. Finally, at 31-20, Quinn Peterson's (Las Vegas, Nev./Shadow Ridge) kill with an assist from Ryan Shelton (Baldwinsville, N.Y./Baldwinsville) was the point JC needed to win the set and tie the match at 1-1.

"After the second set, the big thing we kept talking about in timeouts was making sure we were doing our assignments," noted head coach Pat Shawaryn "Once we started getting our assignments down, you saw the difference real quick."

The Eagles looked to carry their momentum into the third and fourth sets. JC had leads of 16-10 and 21-17 and put together a 4-0 run to take the third and go ahead 2-1.

In the fourth set, the Eagle lead stood at 7-5. EMU got as close as 9-6 but the Eagles were too much as they sprang ahead 19-12 and didn't look back as they easily took the set and match.

"Any time you get a W, you are going to be happy," Shawaryn. "It was a total team effort from 1-17 with that whole group."

Offensively, the Eagles were led by Matt Vasinko's (Loyalhanna, Pa./Derry Area) 18 kills. Chad Albert (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley) and Peterson both added 14 kills. Albert led the team with a .617 hitting percentage. Shelton tallied 53 assists and also picked up three assisted blocks. Brendan Smith (Fuquay-Varina, N.C./Fuquay-Varina) had 12 digs.

Juniata returns to Memorial Gymnasium tomorrow afternoon with a pair of matches. The Eagles host Marymount (Va.) at 1 p.m. and then Wells at 5 p.m.