ELMIRA, N.Y. – The Elmira College men's volleyball team concluded its regular season on Saturday afternoon with a split of the day. After defeating Bard in straight-sets to close out the UVC schedule which saw Oscar Munoz Trinidad '23 lead the team with 11 kills, the Soaring Eagles dropped its evening contest against the No. 12 ranked Eagles from Juniata College, 0-3.
During the afternoon, the Soaring Eagles paid tribute to its two seniors, Matt Amoddio '22 and Alex Adelman '22
With the conclusion of the regular season, the Soaring Eagles have qualified for the UVC Tournament, hosted on the campus of SUNY New Paltz beginning next Friday.
JUST THE BASICS (MATCH ONE):
SCORE: Elmira 3, Bard 0
LOCATION: Elmira, New York | Speidel Gymnasium
RECORDS: Elmira (17-11, 3-4 UVC), Bard (8-9, 0-7 UVC)
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Soaring Eagles put on a dominant showing in the opener, cruising to a straight-sets victory to conclude its UVC slate. The Soaring Eagles grabbed its largest set victory of the afternoon in the first, a 25-11 win over the Raptors. In the set, the Soaring Eagles had three runs of four consecutive points or more, while capping the set with a kill from Haenhyanonhna Powless '23 and a .474 hitting percentage.
In the second, Bard trailed by just a point (12-11) before the Soaring Eagles erupted for five straight (including a trio of service aces from Munoz Trinidad) to extend its lead to 17-11. From there, the teams would trade points before Munoz Trinidad notched a kill to put Elmira ahead 2-0 in the match with a 25-19 second-set victory.
With the set tied 11-11 in the third, the Soaring Eagles matched the second set, scoring seven of the next eight points to retake the lead at 18-12. From there, Elmira would go on to score six of the final eight points as part of a 14-5 run to conclude the third set 25-16, and the match 3-0.
For the match, the Soaring Eagles hit .350% compared to .132% for the Raptors. Amoddio added three blocks in match one of his final game inside of Speidel Gymnasium.
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JUST THE BASICS (MATCH TWO):
SCORE: Elmira 0, Juniata 3
LOCATION: Elmira, New York | Speidel Gymnasium
RECORDS: Elmira (17-12, 3-4 UVC), Juniata (25-5, 6-3 CVC)
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Soaring Eagles battled through the opening sets but ended up on the wrong side of a 25-22 decision in each of the frames. In the opening set, the Soaring Eagles recorded 13 kills compared to 12 for Juniata, but fell just short while the Eagles used three different runs of four or more points to take the set.
In the second set, both squads significantly increased their hitting percentages but once again, the Soaring Eagles fell just short of tying the match at 1-1. With Juniata taking the second set, the Soaring Eagles trailed 15-5 before showing some bright spots. With Juniata just ten points from victory, the Soaring Eagles went on a 8-1 run with Mauricio at the service position to trim its deficit to just three, 16-13.
From there, Juniata was able to finish the set off, scoring five of the final six points on their way to a 3-0 victory in the match.
UP NEXT:
Elmira returns to the floor next Friday when it heads to the campus of SUNY New Paltz for the UVC Tournament.
