Catholic University of America

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Catholic volleyball team hosted a Cardinal Weekend tri-match at Franny Murray Court on Saturday, featuring No. 11 Juniata and No.18 Emory. The Cardinals fell in both matches, 3-0.

Match One: Catholic 0, Juniata 3

Catholic opened the scoring in the first set, with a point by way of attack error from Juniata's Alayna Zeigler. Zeigler responded to that error with a kill to even the score at one. It was a back-and-forth battle after that, with the score knotting six times in the set. After tying the score at 11, Juniata grew its lead by a few points, and held onto it. The Cardinals kept the gap narrow, but the Eagles took the set 25-20. Despite falling in the set, Catholic had a 0.286 attack percentage in the first compared to Juniata's 0.227. 

Anna Maria Carella logged a service ace to open the second set and put Catholic on the board. Juniata responded with four points in a row. The Eagles continued to build a lead, but the Cardinals chipped away at it, tying the score at 15. It was a close contest until late in the set, but Juniata took the final two points with a kill and a service ace to win 25-22.

Juniata had a stellar third set, making no errors for the entirety of the set. They began with a four-point run. The Cardinals responded with two points, a kill from Laci Freitas and Juliette Cummings to get the ball rolling in set three. Despite finding a few points throughout the set, it wasn't enough to overcome the Eagles, who took the third set 25-11.

Match Two: Catholic 0, Emory 3

Emory took the first point with a kill from Sophia Luo. The Cardinals responded with a point that came from Julia Turchiano, then later added four-straight to take the lead. They went up by four over the Eagles, before they found a groove, scoring nine-straight to establish their presence. Emory continued to add points to its tally late in the set, securing the win 25-14.

The Eagles kept the momentum in their favor for the next two sets, taking early leads over Catholic. The Cardinals found points where they could. Julia Raab, Laci Freitas, Kate Kozlowski, Anna Maria Carella, Julia Turchiano and Maddie Wilkey all contributed kills in the second and third sets, but Emory managed to take the second set 25-15, and the third 25-15.

Inside the Box Score:

• Freitas had 13 kills on the day Turchiano followed with 10 kills. 
• Defensively, Cummings had three solo blocks. Turchiano and Kozlowski also logged two solo blocks apiece.
• Alejandra Garcia led with four service aces. She currently leads the team with 31 so far this season.
• Carella had 19 assists on the day, recording 11 in the meeting against Emory. Chloe Mamrosch followed with 18 assists in the tri-match, recording 11 assists in the match against Juniata, her second-most this season.

Up next, Catholic will begin its road stint with a match at Drew on Friday, October 23. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Baldwin Gymnasium.