Stats

The No. 4-ranked Emory volleyball team earned a big win on the road this evening as it came away with a 3-1 triumph over No. 1 Juniata College in its opening match of the Wid Guisler Invitational hosted by Juniata.  The Eagles flew into Memorial Gym on the JC campus and recorded a 25-23, 19-25, 25-12, 26-24 verdict over the similarly-named Eagles in raising their overall record to 21-4 while Juniata slipped to 24-4.

After a dominating performance in the third set gave it a 2-1 edge in the match, the Eagles saw Juniata race out to a 9-3 lead in the fourth game.  Eventually, Emory battled back to tie things up at 11-11 following an ace by junior setter Natalie Schonefeld.  Holding a slim 19-17 advantage, Juniata used a 4-2 spurt to go up by what seemed to be a comfortable 23-19 count.  However, Emory head coach Jenny McDowell saw her squad scratch its way to a 23-23 deadlock with the last two points coming on a kill by junior Jessica McAlvany and a Juniata attack error.  JC went up by a 24-23 margin and was serving for the set but senior Amelia McCall came through with a timely kill for Emory to tie the game. The Eagles then capitalized on a pair of miscues by the host team to come away with the victory. 

For the match, Emory hit 25.9 percent (53-15—147) while holding Juniata to 22.0 percent (61-25—164).  McAlvany paced the Eagles offensive attack with 16 kills and hit 30.0 percent (16-4—10) for the match while sophomore Breananh Bourque and McCall chipped in 12 and 10 terminations, respectively, with Borque finishing with a team-high 34.5 hitting percentage (12-2—29) while chipping in four total blocks (1-3).  McCall also chalked up a team-high 19 digs and was aided in that category by freshman Sarah Taub with 14.  Schonefeld doled out 45 assists and registered four block assists in the winning effort that saw Emory raise its record to 6-2 this year against teams ranked in the Top 25.  Each squad finished with 71 digs while Emory held an 8.5-4.0 margin in total blocks.

Emory plays a pair of matches tomorrow as its winds up play in the Juniata Invitational.  At 1:00 p.m., the Eagles tangle with No. 5 Eastern University (23-1) at 1:00 p.m., before facing Williams at 3:00 p.m.