ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Wesleyan volleyball team saw their incredible 2021 season come to an end on Sunday afternoon as the Cardinals lost in three sets to No. 7 nationally-ranked Juniata in the NCAA Rochester Regional Final from the campus of RIT. Wesleyan concludes the season with a 19-7 record, advancing to the NCAA Regional Final for just the second time in program history. Juniata (31-1) advances to the Elite 8 next weekend in St. Louis.
 
In the second meeting of the 2021 season between the two regional powers, Juniata again came away victorious as the Eagles' offense was firing on all cylinders, hitting .318 for the match and north of .400 in each of the first two sets. Wesleyan did their best against one of the nation's elite programs, giving the Eagles all they could handle in the second set, but unfortunately it proved not enough in the loss.


 
HIGHLIGHTS:

• Juniata blitzed the Cardinals right away, building a 10-2 advantage that later swelled to 18-6. The Eagles hit .429 in the opening set (16 kills on 28 attempts) while the Cardinals managed just six kills with five errors on 26 attempts as Juniata won the first set 25-12.
• After a tough opening set, Wesleyan battled in the second set as the two sides traded points, with neither side leading by more than two points before Wesleyan went on a 4-1 run to lead 16-13. Juniata, however, found their offense and rode an 8-3 run to suddenly lead 21-19. From that point, the teams went point-for-point until Juniata closed the out the second set on a Aly Reardon kill to give the Eagles a crucial 25-23 set win.
• Wesleyan continued to show great resolve despite setting the Eagles take a 2-0 set lead, as the Cardinals battled in the third and led 14-11 only to see Juniata score five unanswered to take a two-point lead. Wesleyan cut the margin to one but another 5-0 Eagle run proved too much to overcome as Juniata closed the match with a 25-21 third set victory.

 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Maddie Kurke '22 led the way for Wesleyan once again, posting 10 kills to go along with seven digs as the senior shined in her final appearance in a Cardinal uniform. For the NCAA Tournament, Kurke totaled a team-leading 44 kills (14.7/match) and set a single-match Wesleyan NCAA Tournament record with 21 kills in the First Round win over Scranton.
• Mariko Tanaka '24 was stellar all-around, posting seven kills, three blocks and six digs in the match
• The NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year Jenna Otaola '22 tied for a match-high 13 digs, giving the defensive stalwart 488 digs in 26 matches (94 sets played) this season as the Cardinals' libero
• Making their fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance (fifth overall), Wesleyan is 82-24 in this current four-year span (2017-21)