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Juniata men's volleyball opens 2011 season with victories on Arizona trip
Story Courtesy of the Juniata Athletics Site
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- The Juniata College men's volleyball team
opened up its 2011 season with a pair of victories, one over a
Division II opponent and another over a key Division III rival.
Playing in a round-robin event hosted by Grand Canyon University
in Phoenix, Ariz., the Eagles opened with a 3-0 win over Division
II Grand Canyon and capped the day with a 3-1 triumph over UC-Santz
Cruz.
Set scores in the win over Grand Canyon were 25-20, 25-21, and
25-21.
Senior outside hitter Chris Vrooman (Baden, Pa./Ambridge Area) led
the Eagles with 11 kills on 25 swings with five errors, while
opposite Alex McColgin (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) tallied 11
terminations on his 25 attacks.
Freshman pin hitter Ross Madden (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) tallied
five kills on 12 attacks, but had a hand on seven of Juniata's 12.5
team blocks and finished with 10.5 points for the match. Junior
middle Ben Wolff (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) had six total blocks to
go with his five kills on seven swings.
Junior Mike Kraft (York, Pa./Eastern York) set 30 assists while
leading a Juniata squad that hit .213 for the game, and also led
the Eagles with a team-high nine digs. McColgin and Vrooman added
five and four digs respectively.
The Eagles held Grand Canyon to .011 hitting for the match, as the
Antelopes committed 30 attack errors.
Juniata ended the day with a 3-1 win over UC-Santa Cruz by set
scores of 26-24, 25-18, 22-25, and 25-19.
Vrooman dominated play with 18 kills on 26 swings and just three
errors to finish with a .577 attack percentage. McColgin also
turned in a strong performance, racking up 12 kills on his 24
attacks with six errors.
Wolff led the Eagles at the net with five blocks, to go with his
eight kills on a .500 hitting percentage. Madden tacked on eight
kills of his own with three blocks. Juniata outblocked UC-Santa
Cruz 9.5 to 6.5, and hit .408 to the Banana Slugs' .252 attack
clip.
Kraft again guided the Juniata offense masterfully, recording 35
assists and turning up a team-high nine digs. Vrooman had six digs
with Madden adding five.
Juniata (2-0) completes the three-game Arizona trip on Sunday
afternoon with a rematch against Grand Canyon University.
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Contact Peter Lefresne at lefresp@juniata.edu or (814)641-3134 for more information.
