(Posted February 26, 2005)

Juniata 3, New York 0

Huntingdon, Pa. ? For the second-straight day the Juniata College men?s volleyball team hosted a highly-ranked Division III opponent in Memorial Gym, and for the second-straight day the Eagles captured a victory this time as top-ranked Juniata dispatched second-ranked New York University 3-0 in Huntingdon Saturday afternoon.

The Eagles improved to 7-6 overall and 3-3 in the EIVA Tait Division by earning the match with game scores of 30-19, 30-22 and 30-24. NYU dropped to 4-7 on the season and 1-5 in the EIVA Tait.

Defense was the story of the match for Juniata as the Eagles limited the visitors to just a .185 attack percentage for the match. Juniata finished with nine blocks as a team, and forced NYU into 22 attack errors. Juniata on the other hand hit .430 on the match, committing just 11 hitting errors as a team.

A run mid-way through game one turned a tight game into a big Eagle lead. With the score tied 10-10 Juniata scored seven of the next nine points, highlighted by a pair of kills from Matt Springer (William Allen/Allentown). Then with Juniata holding a 24-18 edge Springer ripped off a pair of serve aces, followed by a block from Cordt Withum (Penn Manor/Holtwood), Nate Ocasio (Northeastern/Manchester) and Glenn DeHaven (Walt Whitman/South Huntingdon, N.Y.) that pushed the lead to 27-18. Springer then served two more points before a Withum kill closed the game.

Juniata claimed an early lead in game two and maintained the advantage throughout. A block from Withum and DeHaven put Juniata up 11-6 in the early going. Juniata eventually pushed the lead to as much as 10 before strong serving from Jonathan Wintermeyer pulled the visitors within seven. A pair of kills from Ocasio closed the game with Juniata up 30-22.

Game three was tighter than the previous but still saw the Eagles maintain a comfortable edge. Back-to-back kills from Jeremy Barndt (Souderton/Souderton) and Ryan McGinley (Pennridge/Perkasie) extended Juniata?s lead to 20-14, then an ace from McGinley and a kill from Zach Bock (Northeastern/Mount Wolf) put Juniata in front 21-17. A Macnair Sillick serve ace helped New York cut into the deficit, but the Eagle hung on, ending the match with another kill from McGinley.

Ocasio was Juniata?s top offensive weapon as he finished with a match-high 12 kills. Springer added 10 kills to go with a team-high four aces. Setter Ricky Ziegler helped direct Juniata to its .430 hitting percentage as he passed out 34 assists while adding three aces. Tim Cole (Pennsbury/Yardley) paced the team with seven digs, while Withum notched a team-best four blocks. Ziegler and Ocasio added three blocks apiece for Juniata.

Sillick was tops on NYU with eight kills in the match. Leeor Alon passed out 32 assists on the match for the Violets. Defensively Anthony Spangler recorded four digs, and Wintermeyer, Alon and Chris Schmidt all had two blocks.

Juniata returns to action Wednesday night as the Eagles host EIVA Tait Division foe George Mason. It will be the team?s final match before a long lay-off for the team?s spring break.

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Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.