The Emory University volleyball program clinched a 3-0 opening weekend of conference play with a 3-0 win over the Case Western Reserve University Spartans on Sunday afternoon in the final game of the first UAA Round Robin.
 
The No. 9 ranked Eagles improve to 11-2 on the season and were led by a number of student-athletes on offense and defense. Junior Gabija Staniskis totaled 11 kills in the matchup followed by 10 kills each from teammates Kaya Monrose and Sophia Luo. Freshman Carolina Ufret led the team with 26 assists in the match, a career-high for her, while the duo of Eliane Silberman and Maggie Regan posted eight combined blocks.
 
Case Western Reserve opened the first set with a battle going point-for-point with Emory but the Eagles were eventually able to pull away with a 10-6 lead on three consecutive kills from the offense. The Spartans fought their way back to a two-point deficit but the offensive momentum continued from Emory to take an 18-12 advantage. The Eagles went on a slight 7-5 run to finish the set taking advantage of attack errors from Case Western Reserve's offense to clinch the set, 25-17.
 
Emory carried the offensive momentum right into set two holding a 6-2 lead to start the set. The Spartans tried to keep up with their opposite but three attack errors from Case Western Reserve and a kill from Luo pushed the Eagles to a 15-5 lead, their biggest deficit of the match thus far. The Spartans then went on a 7-5 run of their own as Emory's offensive momentum slowed down but it still wasn't enough as the Eagles finished with an 8-6 run of their own to take set two, 25-18.
 
Kills from Silberman and Luo opened the third set helping Emory to a quick 4-0 lead but the Spartans answered with four points of their own. With a 6-4 lead, the Eagles took the next eight points, five of those coming off of kills from Monrose. Case Western Reserve worked to keep their momentum up eventually bringing the score to an Emory 18-15 lead before going on a 4-1 run to tie the set at 19 apiece. The Eagles' offense was too powerful and kills from Silberman, Monrose and Staniskis gave Emory five six straight points to clinch the match with a 25-19 score in the third set.
 
The Eagles will return to the WoodPEC on Friday, October 3 to face fellow Atlanta-foe Oglethorpe in the Dig Pink Match beginning at 4:00 PM.