Eagles Sweep #25 CNU, #10 Berry on Banner Night

HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The #1 Juniata women's volleyball team picked up a pair of victories as they unveiled their National Championship banner on day one of the 30^th annual ASICS Invitational Friday evening inside Memorial Gymnasium. 

The Eagles swept #25 Christopher Newport 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 26-24) in a rematch of last year's Sweet 16 duel before toppling #10 Berry 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-12). 

In set one, with the match deadlocked 5-5, Courtney Williams put down a kill, and Lily Podolan combined with her for a block. Audrey Muth tallied two straight kills, the teams traded errors before Mackenzie Coley had back-to-back kills, and the Captains committed two ball-handling errors to make it 15-7. The visitors tallied a kill before Kennedy Christy added two straight kills to put Juniata up 10, 18-8. JC saw off the rest of the set, winning 25-19. 

Set two, with the score at 13-12, saw the Eagles blow the Captains away with a 14-2 run that ended with a pair of CNU errors. Juniata hit .650 in the set and held the Captains to .000. 

Set three was a much tighter affair as CNU tried to extend the match and used a 5-0 late flurry to pull even at 23-23. The Eagles did what they do best as they eked out a 26-24 set three win to seal the match. 

Coley had a big day hitting the ball as she went for 11 kills on 19 swings with no errors (.579) to go with a solo block and a block assist. Christy had nine kills (.300), two aces, six digs, and a block assist, while Muth totaled nine kills, two digs, and a solo block.  

In the second match of the day against Berry, a 9-2 run midway through the set was capped by a kill from Christy that put JC ahead by five, 17-12. The Eagles nursed the lead the rest of the way, winning on a Sydney Ohl ace, 25-16.  

The Vikings put up a fight in the second set, never trailing by more than five until the late stages of the set. Leading 20-17, kills from Williams & Podolan around an Ohl ace gave JC their largest lead of the set, and they maintained that advantage to a 25-19 win on another Podolan kill. 

The third set of the match saw the Eagles rampage out to an 11-3 lead and never look back. Later, with the score at 17-11, JC ripped off another seven straight points to get to match point and took the match on Podolan's 12^th kill of the match.  

Coley had another big game as she put up 13 kills (.458) to go with a dig and two block assists. Podolan chipped in with 12 kills (.308 and a dig). Olivia Foley accumulated 38 assists, five kills, and 16 digs, while Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez amassed 21 digs, six assists, and an ace. 

The Eagles will close the ASICS Invitational against Carnegie Melon at 4:00 on Saturday.