Calvin pulls off epic comeback to oust Juniata

Calvin 3, Juniata 2 The tall, youthful Knights won a wild, improbable ragtag war of attrition over the experienced Eagles, who couldn’t apply the knockout blows when they had multiple chances. Set scores were 14-25, 17-25, 25-23, 25-22, 15-12. It was a battle of blocking and hitting versus hitting and serving. Hitting and blocking was the winner.

The Calvin win creates a conundrum. Will the Knights play on Sunday or will the NCAA move the championship match? EDIT: An anonymous comment says that the championship will be played on Monday at 2 p.m.

Yet another Drew Barnhart service run highlighted an ugly first set. Barnhart put Juniata up 14-5 on a mix of serves that forced Calvin to burn its two timeouts. Barnhart’s serving gave St. Thomas fits yesterday, and Calvin didn’t fare any better today. The Knights closed to within 15-10, but neither team got into an offensive flow due to horrible ball control. It became a tip and freeball festival that didn’t allow the formidable Calvin block to assert itself. If the Knights can’t block, they must pass and dig. Calvin didn’t do any of those three in the first set.

Set 2 was a repeat, only this time it was a Steph Strauss late service run that broke it open for Juniata. Where was the Calvin block with all of those 6-footers? The Calvin receiving and digging was absent again. Strauss’s dumps may have slowed the Knights’ block, but the offense needs a pass or two to have a chance.

The Calvin wheels fell off early in Set 3. The Eagles service game ate up the Calvin receive, but then the Knights woke up. It took Calvin 2 2/3 sets to get going, but the team that knocked off Wittenberg and smoked St. Thomas arrived late in Set 3. It’s amazing what a few passes and digs can do. The blocks suddenly came in bunches, the swings were looser and Calvin seemed to relax. Juniata didn’t help itself with ball control, but Calvin started to believe and the Knight faithful came alive.

The Calvin block sprinted out to a 6-0 lead in Set 4, but JC stormed back to tie it at 10 because Calvin, again, was tardy in the back row and leaky on the receive. The spurty play left Calvin without a timeout when it was 16-12 Juniata. Calvin reversed momentum behind its best sequence of the day to claim an 18-17 lead, forcing Juniata’s last timeout. That’s when Juniata took a turn in falling apart. JC miscommunication on the receive and attack errors on simple attempts resulted in a major meltdown at the end of the set, giftwrapping a 25-22 win for Calvin.

Calvin was up 8-7 at the side change. If Strauss didn’t dump or win a joust, Juniata couldn’t gain many points and the Knights extended the lead to 10-7. The Eagles kept trying to go through the middle, but the Calvin block answered the bell for a 12-8 advantage. Calvin DS Jen Pluymert scooped what I’m assuming are the two biggest digs of her life on consecutive points to give the Knights an insurmountable 14-9 lead. A lefthanded tooled dump from freshman setter Megan Rietema completed the improbable Calvin comeback, 15-12.

Both teams hit very well on the stat sheet, but that will happen when there are so many freeballs and overpasses. Calvin out-hit Juniata .291 to .251, but the Knights only had 56 kills with two hitters having 10+ kills. Calvin made up for the disparity in kills with a 13-5 edge in blocks despite getting aced 16 times.

The Eagles recorded 70 kills and the whopping 16 aces, with four players registering double figure kills.

Juniata outside Drew Barnhart led all players with 19 kills and six aces. All-America middle Rebecca Kamp led Calvin with 17 kills and a match-high 10 total blocks. JC All-America setter Steph Strauss had 53 assists, eight kills and 17 digs. CC All-America setter Megan Rietema had 38 assists, eight kills, eight digs and 3.5 blocks.

I’m having a tough time digesting what in the wide world of sports just happened. Momentum is a funny thing. It was amazing how the Knights fought after playing so poorly in the first two sets.

-Ricky Nelson