Langhorne, PA - Cairn University faced off against No. 4 Juniata College on Wednesday evening and were able to avoid getting swept in three sets. The Highlanders won set three 25-20 with some very athletic play and help from Juniata errors.
No. 4 Juniata looked like the stronger team out of the gate, putting up runs and going up 10-5 early on. The Eagles kept advancing their lead until they were eventually ahead by 12 to win the first set 25-13. Juniata's Joe Bortak was one that hurt the Highlanders throughout the match with 21 kills and just one error.
In the second set Cairn improved their hitting percentage and forced Juniata to commit more errors, but the Eagles were still too much for the Highlanders and took the set 25-16.
Josiah Buss led the team in attacking with 10 kills on 25 attempts and had nine digs.
Micah Godshall followed him with eight kills but led the team in digs with 11.
The Highlanders then saw an opportunity in the third set to gain some ground on the Eagles and they siezed it. Cairn committed few attacking errors and served tough enough to knock Juniata out of rhythym.
Michael Emond also played well out of the middle in the third set, collecting four out of his five total kills.
Michael Emond hit one of those kills to put the team up 14-10 and later,
Micah Godshall served an ace to put th team up 18-13. The Highlanders capitalized on the Eagles' errors when they needed to in order to stay in the lead throughout the set. Juniata went on a run to bring the score up to 22-19 but Cairn remained ahead and Emond finished off the set with another ace.
Juniata then came back to the court in the fourth set with some firepower. Paul Kuhn had strong serves to put the team ahead 6-2 early on and then Mark Feller took over and gave Juniata a 12-4 lead. The Eagles would eventually hit 15 kills with two errors to win 25-13 and the match 3-1.
With the result, Cairn drops to 7-9 overall and 0-5 in the CVC. Juniata improved to 11-2 overall with the win and 3-0 in the conference. The Highlanders will next host Marymount University this Friday at 7 p.m.
