(Posted April 16, 2004)

JUNIATA VOLLEYBALL ADVANCES TO MOLTEN DIII CHAMPIONSHIP
Juniata 3, Eastern Mennonite 0

Harrisonburg, Va. ? The Juniata College men?s volleyball team advanced to the Molten Division III Championship match for the second year in a row on the strength of an efficient 3-0 victory over host Eastern Mennonite. Juniata, the tournament?s top seed, improved to 16-6 with the victory and advances to the Molten Division III Championship where they will take on third seed Medaille (N.Y.) who upset the second seed UC Santa Cruz in the first semifinal.


Juniata earned the victory by game scores of 30-20, 30-24 and 30-21. It was the second time this season Juniata posted a 3-0 victory over Eastern Mennonite


The Eagles controlled the match with a dominant serving attack. The Eagles tossed in 12 serve aces against just 11 serve errors, the first time all season the team had more aces than errors. Freshman Glenn DeHaven (South Huntington, N.Y.) paced the team with three aces, while Brian Dinning (Penn Hills/Pittsburgh), Kenny Eiser (Central Bucks West/Doylestown) and Steve Yeager (Hempfield/East Petersburg) all had a pair of aces.

It was Dinning?s service that carried the Eagles to the win in game one. With Eastern Mennonite hanging tough with Juniata, Dinning put together a strong run of serves that led Juniata to the 30-20 game one win.

?We really controlled the game with our serving,? Juniata Head Coach Ken Shibuya stated. ?We were able to disrupt their offense and keep them out of doing what they wanted offensively because we served well.?

The Eagles limited Eastern Mennonite to a .172 attack percentage, while Juniata attacked at a .385 clip.

Games two and three followed a similar patter as game one, with the home team hanging with the Eagles, before Juniata pulled away late. Yeager finished game two with an ace to earn the 30-24 win, and then ran away with a 30-21 win in game four.

Eiser paced the Juniata offense with 13 kills on just 18 swings with no errors?a .722 attack percentage?along with six digs. Ryan Genova (Antietam/Reading) posted eight kills for Juniata, with DeHaven and Dinning adding seven finishes apiece. Ricky Ziegler (Northeastern/Manchester) passed out 33 assists for Juniata, while libero Tim Cole (Pennsbury/Yardley) paced the team with nine digs.

The championship match between Juniata and Medaille will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs. Juniata will be looking for its second Molten Championship. The Eagles claimed the Division III title in 1998. Medaille has never won the Molten Championship.

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