Eagles Defeat Royals 5-3 In Landmark Semifinals
CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa.- For the last two years, the Juniata and Scranton women’s teams have met in the Landmark Semifinals. On both occasions, the Royals have come out on the winning end. The third time proved to be the charm as the Eagles defeated the Royals 5-3 to advance to the Landmark Championship for the first time in program history.
CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa.- For the last two years, the Juniata and Scranton women's teams have met in the Landmark Semifinals. On both occasions, the Royals have come out on the winning end. The third time proved to be the charm as the Eagles defeated the Royals 5-3 to advance to the Landmark Championship for the first time in program history.
The victory marked only the second time that Juniata has defeated Scranton in its history and is the first since 2009. The win also snapped the Royals' nine-match winning streak over JC.
Juniata fell behind 2-1 after the completion of doubles play. The lone win went to the pair of Lauren Lucas (Holidaysburg, Pa./Altoona Area HS) and Nora Tsai (New Taipei City, Taiwan) who defeated Courtney Barron and Elyse Smilnak by the score of 8-3.
In the singles portion of the match, Juniata went ahead 3-2 as Lucas and Tsai won at first and third singles. Rachel Yurchisin (Cleveland, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) took her match with Julia Frattaroli to three sets but Frattaroli came out with a 6-0, 1-6, 6-2 win to even the match at 3-3.
Katharine Conklin (Freehold, N.J./Freehold Township) went three sets with Emilia Jakubek at fourth singles and was a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 winner to put the Eagles ahead 4-3. With two matches left to be played, Mitsuki Koh (Cupertino, Calif./Monta Vista) finished her match with Barron at fifth flight and won 6-3, 6-3 to give Juniata the win.
Juniata will now play defending champion Elizabethtown in the championship match this Saturday. Start time is at 1:00 p.m.