Lady Eagles Split First MCCC Contests

ANKENY, IA – The Emmaus volleyball team defeated Barclay College 3-0 and lost to Faith Baptist Bible College 0-3 as they opened conference play.

In the first match of the day, the Lady Eagles took on an evenly matched opponent in the Lady Bears from Barclay.  The two teams traded points for the entirety of the first set, with Emmaus putting down some crucial balls at the end to take the set 28-26.  The Lady Eagles were able to find more consistency on offense in sets two and three, closing them out with scores of 25-17 and 25-21.

"We started slowly against Barclay and did not generate much emotion on our side of the net," said Coach Pitman.  "Neutral site matches are sometimes tough for us in this regard, but I was pleased how we pushed ourselves to pick up the intensity to finish in three sets."  

Alli Howard led the charge for Emmaus with 13 kills, while Elizabeth Brame had 1 solo and 3 assisted blocks.

The Lady Eagles then took on the other Iowa Lady Eagles from Faith Baptist in the second match of the evening.  Faith stormed out to an early lead in set one in front of their Homecoming crowd, but Emmaus soon settled into their own system and mounted a comeback to keep the set close (22-25).    Set two started as a continuation of set one, but the Lady Eagles were again forced to adjust when Savannah Petersen went down with a lower body injury.  "We are really struggling on the injury front right now, and it was a scary moment to see Savvy hurt.  We hope to have good news on her tomorrow," commented Coach Pitman.  Rachel West, still recovering from her own injury was inserted into the lineup and finished out the match for Petersen.  Emmaus fought hard in sets two and three but couldn't overcome Faith's firepower as they swept the match (21-25, 19-25).

Alli Howard had 14 kills in the losing effort.  Freshman Hannah Snow chipped in 5 kills and Hannah Bell had 28 assists.

The Lady Eagles are now 1-1 in the MCCC and 5-2 overall.  The team is back in action next Friday (9/23), traveling to Moberly, MO to take on Central Christian College of the Bible in another MCCC matchup.