Volleyball Faces Ranked Competition at Juniata

Oct. 20 – (HUNTINGDON, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University volleyball team traveled to Huntingdon, Pa., to play in Juniata University’s annual tournament facing three top ranked opponents and finishing 1-3 for the weekend. The Tartans are now 16-13 overall.

The Tartans opened play against #2 Juniata and fell in three games, 30-16, 30-20, and 30-22. For the match, junior Chisom Amaechi (New Haven, Conn./Hopkins) led with nine kills, two block solos and one block assist. Senior Abbie Toney (Des Moines, Iowa/Johnston) had eight kills while sophomore Jess Brackin (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) picked up seven more. Sophomore Samantha Carter (San Antonio, Texas/O’Connor) had 33 assists as freshman Cameron Griffin (Lake Forest, Ill.) collected 10 digs.

Against #11 Cal State EastBay, the team started with a 30-24 win but fell in four tough matches. EastBay won game two 30-18 before squeaking by with 30-28 and 31-29 wins. Three players finished with double digit kills and Carter picked up 48 assists. Brackin led with 13 kills and Toney and Amaechi finished with 12 and 10, respectively. Amaechi and Carter each had five block assists. Sophomore Cara Fatigati (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) had three service aces and 11 digs while Griffin led the defense with 15 digs and sophomore Megan Killeen (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty) also had double digit digs with 10. Joining Fatigati with three service aces was junior Liz DeVleming (Mercer Island, Wash.).

The Tartans then opened Saturday’s competition with #7 La Verne falling 3-0 with game scores of 30-27, 30-18 and 30-19. Toney finished with 10 kills while Carter had 26 assists and eight digs. Amaechi totaled four blocks and Brackin had three.

Carnegie Mellon picked up their lone win of the weekend against Eastern with a 3-0 match score. The Tartans won game one 30-15 then finished off with 30-13 and 30-26 wins. Toney led the attack with nine kills and had two block solos. Amaechi had eight kills and senior Kate Stepp (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) picked up seven in the match. Carter totaled 32 assists and three service aces. Griffin picked up 13 digs and had six service aces while Brackin totaled four blocks.

The Tartans head to Wittenberg University on October 26 and 27 to face two more ranked teams and then will finish out the regular season at the University Athletic Association Championship the first weekend in November.