By Kenny Varner

MIFFLINTOWN – Two cross county rivals met Thursday night on the volleyball court when the Juniata girls volleyball team hosted East Juniata in Tri-Valley action.

Throw out the records when these two teams play. The two battled throughout as the Indians took the contest 3-0 as they took care of things 25-21 in the opener and in game two and three winning 25-7 and 25- 12, respectively.

“It’s always tough when we play EJ because they are all friends. For whatever reason we trouble getting started,” said Juniata coach Layne Greenholt. “But we figured it out and we kind of sailed from there.”

In the first contest, the two went back-and-forth with its momentum throughout. Strong early scoring runs keyed the Juniata offense on the night.

Brooklyn Ehrenzeller started off the game picking up three service points for the early 3-0 lead.

But back came the Tigers knotting the game on a side out after a long serve and two service points from

Kennedy Seigler- Lewis.

Juniata got the ball back and pushed a mini-run of four points. Isabella Armstrong stood strong on the service line rolling off three consecutive points. It would be a block by Mariska Whitesel that would start the run.

After the two teams exchanged side outs, the opportunistic Indians’ offense notched for more consecutive points with Hannah Graybill leading things from the service line, upping its lead to 11-4.

After a Juniata net serve, East Juniata server Libby Hoffman gave her team a boost with an ace and two more service points, cutting it to an 11-8 deficit.

Juniata went back up to 13-8 on a Whitesel blast and an ace by server Sarah Fisher.

After the two teams swapped two consecutive side outs each, Juniata went on its third 4-0 run of the game. This time Miley Hack got the nod rolling off three service points of her own extending the Lady Indians advantage to 18-11.

In that run, Graybill had a block and a blast while teammate Fisher found a hole in the middle of the defenders.

The Lady Tigers refused to go away as they marched their way back into the contest.

Trailing  19-11, East Juniata got the ball and put it in the capable hands of Seigler – Lewis as she gave her team a three point turnaround and she earned two more service points.

With the Tigers trailing only 21-14, the East Juniata crew muscled their way back to within two at 22-20.

Clutch under pressure, EJ server Emily Goodling, with some front line help from Annuncia Fusta as well as Hoffman ran off five consecutive points.

“I thought they)East Juniata) played really aggressive the first set. We got down at first but we brought ourselves back up,” said East  Juniata coach Chloe Rougeau. “The second and the third set we were not running our offense and we were struggling on server saves. We have to be more aggressive like we were in the first set, running offense when we can and keep ourselves back up.”

The run would cause the Indians to call a time out.

After the time out, the Indians regrouped and outscored East Juniata the rest of the way 3-1 to take the first set.

In the second game, the Indians once again started fast and played furious as they went up 7-1 on six service points by Ehrenzeller.

From there, the Indians kept the momentum and went on for the 25-7 victory.

Rounding out the contest, like in the first two games, the Lady Indians once again jumped out to a fast start with Ehrenzeller leading the way opening with six consecutive points.

The momentum remained in the Indians corner as they found themselves winner of a final game score of 25-12.

Juniata 3, East Juniata 0

East Juniata 21    7 12

Juniata          25 25 25