(Posted April 3, 2004)

Juniata 3, George Mason 3

4/3/04--Huntingdon, Pa. ? The Juniata College men?s volleyball team closed its regular season finale with a solid three-game win over EIVA Tait Division foe George Mason in Huntingdon Saturday afternoon. The Eagles close the regular season with a record of 13-6 overall and 7-5 in the Tait Division. George Mason fell to 4-16 on the year and are now 2-7 in the Tait.

The Eagles rebounded from a 3-1 loss to Springfield Friday night, and took this match by game scores of 30-28, 30-21 30-28. The win was Juniata?s second of the season over the Patriots. Juniata claimed a 3-2 at George Mason earlier this season.

Juniata used strong serving early to get to an edge in game one. Brian Dinning (Penn Hills/Pittsburgh) and Ricky Ziegler (Northeastern/Manchester) each served long rallies to push Juniata to a 23-16 lead. George Mason would rally back and cut the lead to 28-27 as Dave Egan and Matt Steinfurth teamed up for a block. Dinning then pounded home a kill for the 30-28 win.

Game two was tighter early but the Eagles began to pull away half-way through the game. Dinning notched back-to-back aces to make the score 21-15 Juniata. After the visitors cut the lead to four, Ziegler and Cortd Withum (Penn Manor/Holtwood) stopped the run with a block and made the score 24-19. Kenny Eiser (Central Bucks West/Doylestown) joined Dinning to finish game two with a block.

Neither team could pull away in game three as the larges lead of the game was three. Ryan Genova (Antietam/Reading) put away a kill to give Juniata a 24-21 edge late in the match. George Mason answered as the setter Egan called his own number to bring the visitors within two. Genova added another two kills down the stretch to extend the lead again, but Felix Campos answered with a kill to make the score 27-26 Juniata. Juniata would reach match point after a pair of errors, and then Glenn DeHaven (Walt Whitman/South Huntington, N.Y.) ended the match with a kill.

Genova paced Juniata with 13 kills, while Dinning added 12 finishes. Eiser was also in double figures with 10.

Campos led the Patriots with 12 kills on the match while adding a team best 11 digs. Arturo Barreiro and Dustin Crosby added 10 kills apiece for George Mason.

Juniata will return to action next Friday as they host Springfield College in an EIVA Division III Championship semifinal.

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Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.