(HUNTINGDON, Pa.) – The Randolph-Macon women's volleyball team gave No. 14 Juniata a run for its money in its opening match of the Asics Classic on Friday evening. The Yellow Jackets came up just short, however, and fell in four sets to the Eagles.

The Basics

Score: Randolph-Macon 1, No. 14 Juniata 3 (21-25, 21-25, 25-21, 23-25)

Venue: Memorial Gymnasium

Records: Randolph-Macon 2-1, No. 14 Juniata 3-1

How It Happened

• The Yellow Jackets stayed with the Eagles for the first part of the opening set and were tied at 14-all after an ace by Madison Warlick (Sr., Charlottesville, Va. / Albermarle). It was then that the Eagles started to separate themselves with seven of the next eight points to put them in position for the win.
• The second set saw the hosts jump out early and had RMC playing catch-up. The Jackets clawed their way back with four-straight points to make the score 17-13 before Juniata started to pull away again. With the Eagles serving for the potential game point, RMC reeled off five consecutive points to make the score 24-21, but the Eagles went up 2-0 on the next point.
• The Jackets stayed alive with an impressive third set win. The Lemon and Black jumped out to an eight point lead on a couple of occasions, their largest of the night, following an Eagles error that made it 19-11 and a block by Danielle LaRosa (Sr., Charlottesville, Va. / Albermarle) and Warlick that put the score at 22-14. Juniata then made its comeback attempt, but an Eagles error, a Maddy DeCandido (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va. / First Colonial) kill, and another block by LaRosa and Megan Bost (So., Angier, N.C. / West Johnson) sent the match to the fourth.
• Randolph-Macon looked poised to send the match to five sets and jumped out to another big lead. Consecutive aces by Leslie Currie (So., Mechanicsville, Va. / Hanover) made the score 17-11 and forced the Eagles to call timeout. After the Eagles scored the next point, RMC bounced back with the next three for a 20-12 advantage.
• Juniata then bounced back and went on an eight point rally to tie the set. The Jackets regained the lead briefly at 22-20 after a kill by Sydney Koch (Sr., Raleigh, Va. / Radford), but Juniata kept momentum and scored five of the next six points to take the match.

Inside the Numbers

• Koch led the team with 11 kills. She equaled Juniata's Aly Reardon for match-high honors.
• The Jackets again proved to be difficult for the opposition up front. RMC rejected nine attacks for points with LaRosa leading the charge as she went up for seven of them. Bost added three.
• Currie led a quartet of Yellow Jackets in double digits in digs with 27. Macguire Gubba (Sr., Grove City, Pa. / Grove City) added 18. Laura Walton (Fr., Urbanna, Va. / Middlesex) tallied 13. DeCandido finished with 11.
• Gubba also set up the Jacket attack and totaled 26 assists.

Up Next

The Yellow Jackets will have a busy day with more top competition. They'll start the day with Franklin & Marshall who is receiving votes in the national polls. They'll finish with Arcadia later that afternoon.