HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The Franklin & Marshall volleyball team (6-6) took the first set from No. 6 Juniata (7-2) before ultimately falling in four sets (25-23, 22-25, 16-25, 17-25) on Thursday evening.
Avery Grantham leveled her career-high for kills with a team-best 13 and a .345 hitting percentage plus two block assists.
Melissa Benkowitz followed with 12 kills plus 12 digs, while
Mia Mascherino had 14 digs, eight kills, a service ace, one solo block, and two block assists.
Carly Campbell totaled 26 assists and two aces, while
Melody Butzer recorded ten assists and six digs.
Chloe Wiedman had a team-high 16 digs.
Claire Kelly led the defense in blocking with one solo block and three block assists.
Gretchen Eichelzer swung .750 with three kills.
After Juniata earned a 3-2 lead, Grantham guided the Diplomats to a 5-3 advantage on a run with three kills, while the Eagles took four of the next five points to reclaim the lead at 7-6. Juniata traded serves up to a 10-8 lead when a 6-1 run from the Diplomats, with points from five different F&M players, put them back ahead, 14-11. A later three-point run for the hosts tied the set at 16-16, setting up a short run of trading serves. F&M made use of a couple of attack errors and a kill from
Jillian Surkis to lead 21-18. Yet again, Juniata tied the game with three-consecutive points, but F&M yet again countered with a 3-0 run to reach set point. Juniata survived two set points before a Kelly kill clinched the first game for the Diplomats.
Both offenses hit north of .300 in another competitive set dominated by runs from each side. The Eagles got the better start, gaining an early 6-2 advantage with three kills, an ace, a block, and one Diplomats service error. They stretched that lead further with a 4-0 run for a 10-3 advantage. F&M slowly worked into that lead, using a later three-point run to cut the margin to 13-9. F&M hovered around a four-point margin up to 16-13. At this point, Juniata scored five of six points to again lead by seven points at 21-14. F&M followed this by nearly erasing the entire deficit with a six-point run highlighted by two Mascherino kills, plus a kill and 1.5 blocks apiece for Grantham and Kelly for a 21-20 scoreline. Juniata scored the next three points to reach set point. Mascherino and Grantham fought off set point with kills ahead of a Juniata kill to tie the match.
F&M gained an early 2-1 lead in the third set but fell behind due to a 5-0 run from their opponents. The Diplomats countered with a 3-0 run with two kills from Grantham to get back within a point. F&M traded serves before tying the set at 8-8. The teams continued trading points up to a 10-10 deadlock. Juniata claimed four of the next five points followed by a 5-2 run that extended their lead to 19-13. F&M could only get within five points the rest of the way, dropping the set at 25-16 on a concluding 3-0 run from the Eagles.
Juniata broke an early 2-2 tie with a 5-1 run to lead, 7-3. They pushed their lead up to seven with a four-point run. F&M cut into the lead by taking four of five points including one kill and a block assist apiece for
Mya Anderson and Mascherino. Behind 12-8, F&M countered back-to-back Eagles points with a four-point run to trail, 14-12. F&M maintained that gap up to 18-16 before Juniata closed the match with a concluding seven-point run with four kills and two aces.
The Diplomats wrap up non-conference play by hosting non-conference Elizabethtown on Tuesday, September 29, at 7:00 p.m.
