Women's Volleyball Suffers First Defeat of the Year to #8 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

ATLANTA, Ga.- The Juniata College women's volleyball team fell to the #8 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 3-0 (15-25, 18-25, 20-25), Friday evening at the Woodruff P.E. Center.

Megan Moroney (Mentor, Ohio/Mentor) led the team with eight kills and two block assists, Victoria Taylor (Middletown, DE/Delaware Military Academy) had six kills and eight digs while Marybeth Weihbrecht (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) had four kills and four block assists. Katie Byrne (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) tallied 15 digs with four assists and Alyssa Tavera (Whittier, Calif./La Salle) had 12 assists and 11 digs. Dejia Danhi (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) had three kills and four block assists whereas Chelsea Scafuro (Geneva, Ohio/Geneva) notched three kills and nine digs.

The first set was tied 1-1, but the Eagles fell behind from there as the Athenas went on a 12-1 run which made it 13-2. Following an Eagle timeout, Weihbrecht got a kill to start a small 4-1 run highlighted by two Korin Koehler (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall) aces which got Juniata within seven at 14-7. Claremont-M-S kept Juniata at bay over the next several points and pushed their lead to 18-10. A kill and two aces from Scafuro pulled the Eagles within five at 18-13, but the CMS closed out the first set on a 7-2 run to win 25-15.

Juniata jumped out to a 5-2 lead to open the second set, and kept a narrow lead before four-straight Athena points put CMS ahead at 10-8. The teams exchanged points as neither one could gain an edge, and a Athena error tied the game at 15-15. Claremont-M-S scored the next five points to take a 20-15 lead. The Eagles scored three consecutive points to get within two at 20-18, but the Athenas scored the next five points to take the second set.

In The third set Juniata never trail by more than five points. Towards the end of the third set, down 21-19, Danhi and Weihbrecht combined for a block to get the Eagles within two, but Juniata only scored once more the rest of the set as Claremont-M-S won 25-20.

The Eagles will play two games tomorrow, facing Lee tomorrow at 1:00 and #4 Emory at 6:00.