Huntingdon, PA - Josiah Buss led the team in a win against Wells College with a career-high 21 kills at the Juniata tri-match, where the team split their matches. In the first match of the day, the Highlanders fell to the No. 4 Eagles in three sets (15-25, 21-25, 19-25). 

Match #1: Cairn vs. Juniata

After coming off a tough loss on Friday evening against Thiel College, the Highlanders played well against the No. 4 team in the country with 29 kills. Andy Willits led the team in that match with 10 kills, and he was followed by Josiah Buss with nine. 

Ryan Garven and Randall Colson each had five kills in the match to round out the attacking presence against the Eagles. Matthew Rhodes had seven digs in the match.

Cairn hit 14 kills in the second set; the highest set total of either team in the match. However, that came along with nine hitting errors, where Juniata had just four in the set. The Highlanders hit fewer errors in the third set but also had half the kills of the previous set and Juniata won in three sets. 

With the loss, the Highlanders dropped to 9-14 overall and 0-9 in the CVC. The win improved Juniata's overall record to 16-3 this season and they remained undefeated in the conference at 8-0. Cairn had to turn right around and play their next game with Wells College shortly after.

Match #2: Cairn vs. Wells

The Highlanders faired much better against Wells College as they won their first five-set match of the season, led by Buss' career-high match. Not only did Buss hit 21 kills but he had just three attacking errors for a percentage of .375. 

Alex Lower also surpassed his season, and career-high number of assists with 53 in the match. His previous high was 52 against Eastern Mennonite earlier in the year. Lower and Matthew Rhodes combined for 26 digs (13 each) to lead the team from the back row. 

Cairn looked like they had the match in-hand when they took a 2-0 lead after set scores of 25-21 and 25-17. However, the Express came back to win set three 25-22 and then set four 25-18. Wells was led by John Farruggia with 14 kills and had two other players with 11 kills each.

The Highlanders started out the fifth set well and took a three-point lead at 7-4. The Express then fired back with a 5-1 run and took an 9-8 lead. Buss stepped up to interrupt their momentum and hit two kills back-to-back, giving Cairn the 10-9 lead. 

Wells again responded with two points of their own and re-took the lead 11-10, but an attack error followed to tie the game for the Highlanders at 11-11. The remaining four points of the match were played with Andy Willits at the service line, like other wins for Cairn this season. 

Willits served bullets over to Wells' side of the court and they had trouble getting a good pass to the setter. The first point in the stretch was a block by Colson and Lower, second was a kill by Buss, which forced a timeout by the Express. Colson hit a kill out of the timeout and Willits finished off the win with an emphatic ace that ricocheted off their libero into the stands. 

The win was much needed for the Highlanders, stopping a three-game losing streak. It improved their record to 10-14 this season, while the loss for Wells dropped them to 7-13. Cairn will now head into the spring break and return to action on Mar. 20 at Marymount University.