The Emory University volleyball team traveled to Birmingham, AL on Saturday where they split a doubleheader between Birmingham-Southern and Covenant.
The No. 8 ranked Eagles fell in a tight four-set match by a score of 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 25-22 against the Panthers with every set finishing within five points in the first game of the doubleheader. Emory avenged their loss with a dominant 25-9, 25-19, 25-18 victory over the Scots in the latter match.
In the match against Birmingham-Southern, junior Carly Wallace led the way for the Eagles with a team-leading 16 kills on a .265 hitting percentage (16-3--49) to go along with 16 digs as she played all over the court for Emory. Sophomores Lily Martin and Alana Dawson each picked up 12 kills and three blocks of their own over the course of the match. Senior libero Lauren Bandera continued to play a pivotal role in the back line for the Eagles as she contributed a team-high 22 digs. Sophomore Sarah Luong played the bulk of the match at setter where she poured in 36 assists and added three sneaky kills for the Eagles as well.
Despite the Eagles falling to the Panthers, they led the kills battle by a 56-50 margin but it was the hitting errors that did Emory in as they had 23 throughout the match. The Eagles serve continued to be a bit of an enigma as they had eight service aces but also eight errors. After having zero blocks in the first match of the season against LaGrange, they got the block game going against the Panthers with 14 in the contest.
A tight back-and-forth first set saw the score knotted up at 23 a piece after a small 3-0 scoring run from the Eagles, including two massive kills from Wallace, but the effort proved to be too little too late as a couple of untimely errors saw the Panthers take the set 25-23. Emory showed up big time in the second set as sophomore Deborah Hong highlighted the set with two service aces as the Eagles won 25-20. Despite going up 20-8 in the third set, the Eagles were unable to hold on as the Panthers went on a 17-3 run to steal set three from the Eagles 25-23. Despite the Eagles best efforts and another tight set, they were unable to capture the fourth set as they eventually fell 25-22, dropping their first match of the season.
Against Covenant, junior Amanda Meyer stole the show as she had a team high 13 kills on an impressive .476 hitting percentage (13-3--21) as well as a team leading three blocks. Bandera had yet another strong match in the back row contributing 24 digs in keeping the Scots off the scoreboard. Freshman Olivia Rabinowitz set a new career-high 39 assists as she was in command of the Eagles offense from the jump in this match.
The second match was a much more lively affair for Emory as they were able to hold the Scots to a lowly .059 hitting percentage (25-19--102). The Eagles poured in 45 kills themselves and shored up some of their service issues with six aces to just three errors.
Emory came out swinging after dropping its first match of the day, winning the first set 25-9 which included a 9-0 run to close out the set thanks in large part to the defensive pressure applied as the team forced the Panthers into six errors over that stretch. The second set proved to be more of a challenge with the Eagles finding themselves in an 8-2 hole to begin the set but would battle back, eventually going on a 9-1 run to finish the set. The Eagles left nothing to chance in the third set coming out on a 5-0 run thanks to some impressive play at the net from sophomore Jessica Majka. Emory finished the match strong, winning the third set 25-18 and bringing their season record to 2-1.
The Eagles will stay on the road as they are set to take on the West Georgia Wolves on Tuesday, September 6th at 7:00 PM in Carrollton, GA.