No. 16 Eagles Upset No. 6 Washington-St. Louis

By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
Photo: JD Cavrich 

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – The No. 16 Juniata College women's volleyball team defeated its second ranked opponent in as many days beating No. 6 Washington-St. Louis 3-2 (18-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-18, 15-11). The Eagles improve to 11-0 overall. Junior Amelia Kepler (Kane, Pa./Kane Area) was named to the Wittenberg Fall Classic All-Tournament team and had a match high 21 kills against Washington-St. Louis.

"It was a really good win for us," said head coach Heather Pavlik. "Being down 2-0 and coming back was probably the best part. I think the match overall shows a lot of competitive maturity from the team. The girls really understand that when you're down you're not out."

The match started out fairly even as the two teams traded points in the opening set until they reached 11-11. The Bears then jumped out ahead going on a 13-4 run in which in Eagles were only able to score one point at a time. Juniata was able to fight off two set points, but at 24-17 the Bears got a kill from Meghan Byrne and took a 1-0 lead in the match.

The second set saw both teams go on mini runs. Washington St.-Louis jumped out to an early 8-4 lead, but the Eagles battled back and eventually took a 14-10 lead. The Bears came back with six straight points to lead the set 16-14. At 20 all, senior Courtney Lydick (McKean, Pa./General Lane) slammed down her third kill of the set to put Juniata up, but the Bears closed out the set with four straight points for the 25-21 win.

The third set showed the determination of this Eagles squad. Juniata only allowed the Bears to score more than back-to-back points twice. Washington St.-Louis rattled off four consecutive points to take an 11-10 lead and the Bears tried to claw back into the set, scoring three straight points and taking the match to 18-17 in favor of Juniata. In the first two sets the Eagles were only able to muster nine kills, but the offense came alive in the fourth set with 14 kills and earned the win 25-21.

"The girls are really starting to understand that if we play the game the way it's meant to be played we can have success," said Pavlik. "They are starting to pay attention to all the little details. If we take care of each point good things can happen. We don't want to worry about what happened the point before or what the next point can mean. We really want to take of things one point at a time because when you play good competition, a point here or there can mean the match."

In the forth set the Eagles got on a roll thanks in part to seven kills from Kepler and two early Juniata service aces. Freshman Kelly Reynolds (Upper Saint Clair, Pa./Upper Saint Clair) finished with a match high 33 assists in three sets. The Eagles jumped ahead early with a service ace from senior Amy Miller (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) on the first point and never relinquished the lead. Sophomore Bryce Arnold (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg Area) had a career high eight kills in the match, four of them coming in the fourth set alone.

 "We shuffled in a lot of different people in this match," said Pavlik. "That can be hard to deal with sometimes, but the girls did really well. It was definitely a collective effort for the win. We had a few really standout individual performances. But overall it was the full team."

Junior libero Brittani Young (Columbia, Pa./Hempfield Area) came away with a match high 21 digs to lead the Eagles defense.

 "Brittani had another fantastic match today," stated Pavlik. "She came up really big for us all weekend long."

Newcomers Nakita Gearhart (Waynesboro, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim), Reynolds, and Brittanie Tannenbaum (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Highlands Ranch) all notched career highs this weekend with Reynolds and Tannenbaum both earning a career high three service aces in the match against the Bears and Gearhart amassing eight kills against Ohio Northern University last Friday.

"The freshmen are really showing maturity beyond their years. Nakita came in and got some really big points for us in the third and fourth sets," said Pavlik. "Kelly set the third, fourth, and fifth sets and did really well. That's hard to do. To come in off the bench and play like she did was good to see. Brittani Tannenbaum came in and got us some big serves. It's really hard to come into a match cold and serve as well as she did. They certainly were making the right decisions during the match and played well beyond their years."

The Eagles are next in action at home Tuesday, Sept. 24^th at 7 p.m. when they face off against Indiana University (Pa.).

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