Eagles Sweep Eastern, Muskingum To Move to 10-1 on the Year

HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The #4 Juniata women's volleyball team picked up a pair of victories as they swept visiting Eastern 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-21) and Muskingum 3-0 (25-18, 27-25, 25-20), Saturday afternoon inside Memorial Gymnasium. 

The opening set was tight early, with Eastern leading 14-17 late. Juniata completely dominated the rest of the set, with kills from Lily Podolan and Kennedy Christy sandwiched around a Sydney Ohl ace. Lexy Bloss and Podolan combined for a block before an Eastern attack error made it 19-17. EU took the next point, but it was their final point of the set. Eastern committed an error; Christy racked up another kill, and the visitor's called timeout. Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez came out of the time out and served up an ace, Mackenzie Coley got a solo block, and another Rousset-Hernandez ace gave the Eagles set point. Podolan smacked down another kill to end set one, 25-18. 

The second set saw more of the same as Eastern held an early 6-9 lead, and then Juniata again went on another big run. Two kills from Audrey Muth, a block by her and Bloss, two errors by Eastern, and an ace by Olivia Foley made it 12-9 Juniata as EU called timeout. Eastern got a kill coming out of the timeout, but a service error was followed by a block from Podolan and Bloss, a kill by Christy, two more visitor errors, and another Podolan kill to make it 18-10. Juniata cruised from there, eventually taking set two 25-14 on a Christy ace. 

Eastern held a 10-15 lead in the third set before two errors, a kill from Muth, and two kills from Foley knotted things at 15-15. The teams traded points until kills from Muth and Christy, paired with an Eastern attack error, made it 21-18. EU got back within one before two blocks from Coley & Christy sandwiched around Coley's kill made it 24-20. Juniata won on a Christy kill, 25-21. 

Match two against the Muskies saw JC race out to a 5-0 lead, but Muskingum didn't fold, and the teams traded runs, with Muskingum pulling even again at 17-17. From there, an 8-0 run from the Eagles put them at set point, and two points later, a Muth kill ended the set 25-18.  

Set two was the tightest of the match, with the Muskies reaching set point first at 23-24, and Juniata called timeout. Two straight errors by the visitors made it 25-24; the Muskies scored the next point via kill to tie things at 25-25 before a Podolan kill, and one more error from Muskingum ended set two 27-25. 

Juniata had their best hitting set of the match in the third as they hit .341 and used a 7-0 run midway through the set to climb back in the driver's seat. The Muskies hung around, but Podolan capped her career-high 18-kill day with Juniata's final points of the match as JC took set three 25-20. 

The Muskies had no answer, as Podolan had a career day tallying 18 kills while hitting .517. 

Juniata will host Division II Bloomsburg Tuesday at 7:00.