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CMS Vs. Juniata Recap
Call it The Surprising Net Result.
Among the three ranked teams at the Leopard Invitational, it was Claremont-Mudd-Scripps - the lone unranked team in the field - which delivered the signature win of the tournament with a stunning 3-2 triumph over #1 Juniata College Saturday evening at Frantz Athletic Court.
Scores were 27-25, 17-25, 27-25, 18-25, 15-6.
CMS dominated the fifth set by scoring the first nine points and never looked back. Up 14-6, Emily Hudson recorded the final kill to punctuate the upset win.
Tied at a set apiece, the two teams were deadlocked at 25-25 when the CMS's Jenna Suttmeier connected on consecutive kills to give the Athenas a 27-25 set triumph.
Down two sets to one, Juniata forced a fifth game by hitting .406 to prevail 25-18. But the Eagle offense struggled in the fifth stanza by hitting -.077 while the Athenas flourished with a .467 percentage.
"We definitely walked in as the underdog, so to get a win over a great team like Juniata is definitely a step in the right direction," said CMS head coach Dianna Graves. "It makes a nice statement for both our conference and the West Region.
After hitting .080 in a three-set defeat to La Verne earlier in the day, CMS rebounded with a .273 clip against the nation's top-ranked team. Defensively, the Athenas outblocked the Eagles 13.5 to 6.
Hudson totaled a team-high 15 kills in the win while Leanne Ringquist and Helena Bottemiller contributed 9 kills each. Juniata's Amber Thomas tallied a match-high 19 kills with Erin Albert registering 13 kills in the defeat.
