Emmaus Closes Regular Season with Two Road Victories

ST. LOUIS, MO - The Lady Eagles made the trek home from Missouri with two important conference wins under their belt.  Emmaus rises to 11-7 on the season and finishes MCCC play with a record of 6-4.

Friday night found the Lady Eagles in a very tight match with the Lady Saints of Central Christian (Moberly, MO).  "Central was well prepared and played some strong volleyball," said Coach Pitman.  The two teams exchanged leads and the game was hard fought.  Despite some controversial calls and the hometown crowd's enthusiasm, Emmaus stuck to their game plan and closed sets one and two with scores of 25-23 and 25-22.  Set three found the Lady Eagles determined to sweep the match, and they put together several key runs to win with a score of 25-17.  "I was proud of the ladies once again for handling an adverse situation with grace," commented Coach Pitman.

Alli Howard led the charge again for Emmaus with 12 kills, with Savannah Petersen contributing 8.  Hannah Bell had 26 assists and Molly Skoglund had 21 digs.

On Saturday the Lady Eagles traveled to St. Louis for their final match of the regular season against the Lady Soldiers of St. Louis Christian.  Emmaus played tightly and was able to control the match for a 3-0 sweep.

The Lady Eagles now turn their attention to post-season play as they prepare for the MCCC and ACCA tournaments.  "We've had a great season so far, and we are looking forward to continued growth in the time we have left," said Coach Pitman.  "We said at the beginning of the year that we would take the long view of success and I believe we have done that.  In every match we have focused on unity and on executing our brand of volleyball correctly.  Sometimes we have done those things well and other times not so well.  Sometimes wins have resulted and sometimes we struggled on the road, or we just couldn't close matches that were in our reach.  But we are still achieving the bigger picture that we are after; and that's what matters.  This young team continues to grow, to love each other, and build consistency into our volleyball program - and Coach Ruter and I couldn't be more proud of these young women."

The Lady Eagles travel to Ankeny next weekend for the MCCC tournament.  Seeding and brackets will be announced soon.