Juniata Wins Second National Title
Comes Back from 2-1 Deficit to Defeat Washington U.
Box Score 

November 18, 2006  -  National Final Match

SALEM, Va. --- The final match of the 2006 Division III National Volleyball Championship featured a pair of squads with a storied history in the event’s final contest.  Juniata College evened its record in national final matches against Washington University-St. Louis with a 3-2 (30-27, 20-30, 22-30, 30-27, 15-10) comeback victory to earn its second national title in school history.

Saturday night marked the fourth time the schools had met in the national final with Washington U. winning the first two meetings.  Juniata won the third match up in 2004 for its first national championship.

“Washington is just a wonderful team,” explained Juniata head coach Larry Bock.  “We’re very fortunate to have won a great match against a wonderful team.”

Washington U. recovered from a game one loss to win the next two frames and put the Eagles’ backs to the wall.  Juniata responded by winning an exciting fourth stanza to set up a deciding fifth game.

Juniata broke through first in the final frame, posting a 4-2 edge following an Amber Thomas block.  The Bears quickly closed the gap with a kill by Whitney Smith and a serve receiving error by the Eagle defense.  Both squads continued to pepper the net through several tied scores, but Thomas and Rachael Schatz gave the Eagles an 8-6 lead at the changeover.

Schatz and Alli Alberts helped Juniata to a 10-7 lead, and a Bear handling error and net violation pushed the advantage out to 12-8 forcing Washington U. into a timeout.  The Bears gave another point back out of the break, but Emilie Walk quickly brought composer with a kill and a block assist with Haleigh Spencer to cut Juniata’s lead to 13-10. 

Stephanie Kines picked up her second block of the match out of the Eagles timeout, setting up Thomas for the comeback-completing and title-winning kill with a 15-10 fifth game win.

“Something clicked there towards the end of the third game and going into the fourth game,” explained Juniata sophomore Thomas.  “We just picked up our momentum again and just took it to them.  We knew what we had to and we pulled it out in the fifth game.”

Thomas, named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, hammered 25 kills including 10 in the first game.  She also collected 14 digs.  Kines led all players with 26 kills and a .412 hitting percentage.  Schatz also hit well, drumming out 21 kills to go with 12 digs.  Setter Beth Kozak dished out an eye-popping 75 assists.  Megan Sollenberger led the Eagles with 21 digs from the back line.

Walk led a stout Washington-St. Louis front line with 17 kills and 11 total blocks (five solo).  Smith knocked out 15 kills and registered eight blocks.  Spencer and Nikki Morrison both recorded 10 kills.  Amy Bommarito collected a match-best 23 digs while Spencer and Alberts added 15 apiece.

“I just think that you may have witnessed the best match in the history of Division III volleyball championships,” explained Washington U. head coach Rich Luenemann.

Game one opened as even as expected with neither team moving out more than a point until Juniata went ahead 7-5 on a Kines’ kill.  The Bears quickly closed the gap back to 7-7 with attacks from both wings.  A pair of kills from Schatz and a third from Kines forced the Bears into a timeout.

The Eagles were not phased by the break in play, riding a pair of Kines’ well-placed attacks to a 15-10 advantage.  Washington U.’s Smith put together a good string at the net, hammering down a nice middle kill and blocking a Juniata attempt to spur the Bears into action.  Walk put the finishing touch on the mid-frame comeback, sending a Schatz attempt back to the Eagles’ side to tie the score 18-18 and force a timeout.

A trio of costly errors quickly found the Bears down 21-18, but the Bear bench swiftly addressed the issue and put WUSTL back on course.  Three Eagle mistakes coupled with a Bear block gave Washington U. a 22-21 lead.  The Bears’ edge grew to 25-23, but Juniata fought back to tie the score and eventually move out to a 28-27 advantage.

After talking about it on the sidelines, Juniata came out with a couple of well-placed attacks to take the first game 30-27.

“The beginning was fine, but for a while it was like going to the dentist.  We just couldn’t score any serving points,” said Coach Bock.

The Bears jumped out quickly in the second game, racking up a 9-3 lead thanks in part to good hitting and shaky aim from the Eagle attackers.  Washington U.’s six-point edge maintained for several side-outs until Schatz brought the Eagles back to within four at 16-12.

A pair of powerful Walk kills were offset by two well-placed scoring strikes from Kines to make the score 19-14, but the Bears used the following few points to build a 23-16 lead and force a Juniata timeout.

Walk continued to shine at the net out of the break, picking up another kill and block to move the Bears lead out to 27-18 and force a second Eagle conference.  Following a set of traded points, Walk and Morrison combined to block Schatz for a 29-20 lead.  Spencer finished out the frame with a kill off the block for a 30-20 Bear win.

With Washington U. again moving out quickly in the third game, Juniata’s bench chose to stop the Bears’ run quickly with a timeout down 3-0.  While the Eagles’ offense did get on track, the Bears continued to press at the net, moving out to an 8-4 lead.

Thomas and Kines brought the Eagles back to within one at 12-11 with several spirited attacks at the net, but the Bears weathered the storm and moved back out to a 15-11 advantage.  The lead continued to grow, reaching 18-12 before Juniata called its second timeout of the frame.

The Bears seemed unaffected following the timeout as their lead grew to 21-13, but two miscues and Kines’ kill forced the red and green bench into its own pause at 21-16.  The talk definitely had an effect on Walk as she came out with a kill and a pair of solo blocks to push the Bears to a 24-17 advantage.

The best rally of the match followed at 26-18 when both teams traded attacks before Washington U. scrambled to keep the ball alive and finished the point with its 13^th block of the contest for a 27-18 lead.  A kill by Alberts closed out the game 30-22 and gave the Bears a 2-1 match lead.

Game four started level early on, but Washington U. and Walk quickly changed that by forcing Juniata into a timeout at 8-4.  Walk, who had a kill and a block already in the game, added a second of each out of the timeout for a 9-5 lead.

The Eagles fired right back, pulling to within 11-9 with a pair of kills from Kines, one from Thomas and an ace from Kozak.  With Juniata down only one at 12-11, Janak broke the Eagles’ momentum with a perfectly placed dump to the center of Juniata’s side.

Washington U. briefly saw its lead move out to 17-13, but a “tape-crawling” kill by Kozak closed the gap to 17-16.  The Bears’ edge remained only one until Juniata’s defense sent a free-ball long and Smith turned back an Eagle attempt for a 22-18 timeout-inducing lead.

With the pace of the match already spiking the meters, the speed quickened even further out of the break with each team attacking and scrambling furiously.  Juniata brought the Bears’ lead down to one at 25-24 to force them into a quick recess.  Walk again responded with another crunching kill, but a pair of attacking errors brought the Eagles’ back to even at 26-26.

Kines added two kills to go with one from Paige Johnston to put Juniata within one of tying the match.  Schatz finished the game with a kill off the block for a 30-27 win to even the match at two games apiece and set up the final frame.