CLAREMONT, Calif. — The Juniata College women’s volleyball team punched its ticket to the NCAA Division III national championship match with a semifinal victory on Thursday night at Roberts Pavillion.

Juniata defeated New York University in three sets, 25-15, 25-19, 25-20, to earn its spot in Saturday’s final against either Hope or host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Juniata, now 34-0, is the defending national champ and winner of 61 straight matches.

“We had never played Juniata since I’ve been coaching here,” NYU coach Andrew Brown said. “They are a great team and showed that today.”

Audrey Muth led the Juniata attack with 14 kills, Lily Podolan had 12, and Kennedy Christy added 11. Olivia Foley recorded 40 assists, Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez had 19 digs, and Mia Schubert added 10 digs.

The Violets never led in the first set as Juniata dominated with a pair of 10-point leads.

It did not get any better for the Violets in the second set, as the Eagles scored the first four points before a Grace Nelson kill put NYU on the scoreboard.

NYU was still within a point at 10-9, but Juniata scored the next two and went on to take a six-point lead. Consecutive kills brought the Violets within three, but they could not get any closer in dropping the second set.

The Violets took their first lead of the match by scoring the first two points of the third set. However, the Eagles quickly rebounded to take the next four.

After three ties, the Eagles took the lead for good. Juniata’s advantage grew to as many as six points. The Violets ended the season with a 33-5 record.

Lady Lions moving on

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Penn State fought off a Yale team with its eyes on an upset Thursday night at Kansas’s Horesji Family Arena, beating the Bulldogs 3-1 (25-17, 23-25, 25-22, 25-16) in the NCAA Tournament’s first round of action.

Penn State improved to 22-8 on the season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament second round, where it will take on host Kansas tonight at 6:30 p.m. The Nittany Lions are now 25-0 in the opening round of the tournament since it expanded to 64 teams in 1998.

The turning point of the win came in the third set as Penn State fought back from an early 7-0 deficit to get the 25-22 win to avoid going down 2-1 in the match.

Jess Mruzik powered the Nittany Lions’ attack with 19 kills on .486 hitting and added six digs. The Nittany Lions hit .373 as a team, including .550 in the first set and .520 in the fourth set.

from Mac Podraza. The setter tacked on 10 digs to record her third-straight double-double and 12th of the season. She also had three of the team’s eight aces.