Lady Eagles Defeat Moody in First NCCAA Match as Part of Chicagoland Sweep

LAKE ZURICH, IL – The Emmaus volleyball team took all three matches in straight sets this weekend on their first road trip of the season.

Friday night had the Lady Eagles pitted against the Crimson Wave of Calumet College of St. Joseph (NAIA) in Whiting, Indiana.  The match had moments of back and forth battle, but Emmaus maintained control of the tempo and was able to fend off any comeback from Calumet.

"We struggled a bit tonight with maintaining intensity, which allowed our opponent to take advantage of the opportunities we gave them," commented Coach Pitman.  "I was pleased with our ability to close out the match in three sets."  Final scores for the match were 25-19, 25-17, 25-22.

Wynne Vandersall led the attack for the Lady Eagles with 13 kills, followed by Paige Sweeney with 5 and Alli Howard with 4.  Setter Hannah Postma had 28 assists and Libero Savannah Petersen had 13 digs.

Saturday morning the Lady Eagles met Moody Bible Institute for the first time since 2011 in a neutral site match at Dayspring Bible College.  This would be the first NCCAA North Region matchup for both schools, and the first NCCAA volleyball match for Emmaus in school history.

The Lady Eagles and Lady Archers looked to be evenly matched, and each team stayed within a few points of each other for most of the first set.  Emmaus capitalized on a few Moody errors late in the set and made a short run to outlast them by a score of 25-20.  Set two was all Emmaus, as they were dominant on defense and at the net, resulting in a 25-13 win.  Set three looked to be more of the same with the Lady Eagles leading all the way, but the Lady Archers displayed incredible tenacity and hit a very hot run late in the set to close the gap to two points.  Emmaus kept their heads and were able to close out the match with score of 25-21.

"Moody is a strong and well coached team, and they really pushed us to play our best today," said Coach Pitman after the match.  "Once again we were able to be effective because we won the serve receive and defensive battle.  It is great to see the team playing so well together, and it is also encouraging that these young ladies have more potential to reach this season!"

Leaders on offense for the Lady Eagles were Wynne Vandersall (13 kills) and Paige Sweeney (9 kills).  Hannah Postma had 30 assists and 2 service aces, while Emma Reibling contributed 1 ace.

Emmaus closed out the weekend with a match against Dayspring.  The Lady Eagles played hard and all 13 players contributed to a convincing win (25-11, 25-5, 25-6).

Emmaus improves to 5-0 on the young season, and will open Midwest Christian Conference play this week on the road.  The Lady Eagles travel to Ankeny, IA to play against a tough Faith Baptist squad on Tuesday, and will then face off against Barclay College and hosts Manhattan Christian College in Kansas on Friday.