Emmaus Captures Third Place at Nationals to End Season

JOPLIN, MO – The Lady Eagles ended their season on a high note as they defeated Ozark Christian College 3-0 in the third place match at the ACCA National Tournament.

After falling to #1 seed and eventual champion Randall University in the semi-finals, Emmaus faced the tough task of playing back-to-back against a strong Ozark squad on their home floor.  The Lady Eagles were eager to avenge their MCCC championship loss to the Lady Ambassadors, and Ozark was prepared to put up a fight in what promised to be another even and exciting match.

Set one found the Lady Ambassadors coming out on fire, as they put the Lady Eagles on their heels with a commanding 8-2 lead.  Emmaus fought back only to have Ozark make another large run to bring the score to 18-12.  But the Lady Eagles once again took on the challenge of digging out of a hole, and roared back to even the score at 20-20.  A clutch performance for the last five points enabled Emmaus to seal the set with a 25-22 score.

Set two started better for Emmaus as they took an early lead and looked to be in control, but Ozark responded in kind with a large run of their own.  The Lady Eagles once again settled down and found ball control and consistency to be their allies, as they took the set with a 25-21 victory.  

Set three was a ping pong match of back and forth scoring, until Hannah Bell took to the serving line in her second rotation and generated 5 aces to help Emmaus pull away.  The Lady Eagles played hard and aggressive ball for the rest of the set and won with a score of 25-18.

"This was a fun match and another great performance by both teams," said Coach Pitman.  "Ozark has a few rotations that are very strong and we adjusted our rotations accordingly in each set to find our best matchup against them.  The victory was a true team effort as we had key clutch plays from every player at certain points of the match.  This was some of our best volleyball of the season.  I am glad that we were able to perform so well in another pressure situation and that we never let the score affect our game plan."

The victory was one of many accomplishments for the Lady Eagles in 2016:

• ACCA National Tournament Third Place – School Record

• MCCC Tournament Runner Up – School Record

• MCCC Regular Season Runner Up (6-2) – School Record

• Overall Record:  16-7 (.696) – School Record

• Swept 10 of 16 wins 3-0

• Were swept 0-3 only by nationally ranked opponents at time of match (Faith #10, Grace #8, Randall #4)

"While the numbers show that we had a great season, and we are certainly proud of that, the majority of our success this year was not on paper," commented Coach Pitman.  "Our team had a great deal of spiritual and emotional growth, and that was encouraging to watch.  We fought through injuries and had teammates unable to finish the season with us.  We didn't get to follow our perfect plan, and we didn't always play the way we wanted to.  We lost some heartbreakers and logged thousands of miles on the road.  We did it all together, we stayed unified, and we did our best to honor the Lord and represent Emmaus.  We ask a lot from our athletes and Coach Ruter and I are so incredibly proud of the hard work and testimony that this team has shown this fall."