The Emory University volleyball program put on a dominating performance on Friday afternoon defeating the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas in three sets in Atlanta, Georgia in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Eagles improve to 28-2 on the season with the win and advance to the regional finals for the second season in a row. Emory downed Covenant on Thursday to open the tournament before completing the 26-24, 25-20, 25-19 win over the Athenas.
 
A number of Eagles saw top numbers in the match with seniors Alana Dawson and Madison Cail leading the offense with 25 kills between the two of them while teammates Olivia Rabinowitz and Sarah Luong totaled 35 assists.
 
Others with impressive numbers were senior Deborah Hong and junior Kate LaRocco who posted 23 and 13 digs respectively. LaRocco was efficient at the net alongside junior Sophie Zerrouki with both posting four blocks in the match.
 
The first set was a nail biter with CMS opening with a 6-3 lead before the first substitutions of the set. They continued scoring taking an 11-6 advantage but Emory answered with six straight points taking advantage of attack errors from the Athenas to reclaim the 12-11 lead.
 
The two teams continued toe-to-toe heading into a 20-20 tie towards the end of the set and neither team was backing down with Emory later holding a 24-23 advantage. After CMS tied the set at 24 apiece, errors from the Athenas clinched set one for Emory, 26-24.
 
Emory carried the momentum straight into the second set opening with an 11-2 lead highlighted by kills from LaRocco and senior Jessica Majka. CMS fought back to cut into the Eagles' lead, 16-14, but Emory was able to continue to put pressure on the Athenas forcing three straight attack errors to broaden the lead again. Both teams finished the set on a 6-6 run while kills from Cail and Majka finished the 25-20 second set for Emory.
 
The third set of the match opened with Emory taking a 9-4 lead with Dawson and Cail continuing to lead the offense. The Athenas battled back to cut the Eagles' lead down to 13-12 after notching three straight kills. The next few points went back and forth on both sides of the net before kills from Dawson and Majka helped Emory pull away with a 21-15 lead. The next eight points went even between the two programs but the Eagles were able to finish with a 25-19 line to clinch the match.
 
The Eagles will face the Trinity (TX) Tigers on Saturday, November 23 in the regional final at 5:00 PM. The two teams faced each other in the regional final last season at the Mount Berry regional with Trinity (TX) taking the match 3-1 to advance to the Elite Eight.