Eagles Drop Match 1 Against Reigning National Champions In the NCCAA Championship

#7 Emmaus opened its potential NCCAA DII National Tournament run in a valiant 1-3 defeat against #2 Arlington Baptist, with the scores of 26-24, 23–25, 23–25, 16-25

After a thrilling first-set win, the Eagles could not keep up against ABU.

Set-by-Set Recap

Set 1: Emmaus 26, Arlington Baptist 24
Emmaus started strong offensively (.256 hitting), with Kaitlin Rahn and Lindsey McIlveen leading early attacks. Despite holding multiple leads, EU capitalized on key late points to steal the opener.

Set 2: Emmaus 23, Arlington Baptist 25
A gritty, defensive-heavy set for both teams. Emmaus scraped together timely kills—especially from McIlveen and Selah Gregory—while earning points through extended rallies and improved block touches, but ABU pulled through in the end.

Set 3: Emmaus 23, Arlington Baptist 25
ABU hit a strong .238 in the final set. But Rahn and McIlveen had late-set kills, and Emmaus' serve pressure forced Arlington Baptist out of system repeatedly. But again, not enough to overcome ABU's resiliency.

Set 4: Emmaus 16, Arlington Baptist 25
The Eagles, unfortunately, faded in the fourth and final set, hitting only .189. Jennika Beach anchored the back row with flawless serve receive, and Michelle Striley delivered 10 assists in the frame while steering a balanced attack. But ABU took over and sealed the win.

Emmaus Statistical Leaders
Offense:

Kaitlin Rahn — 14 kills (.256), 14.5 points
Efficient, powerful, and steady throughout the match.

Lindsey McIlveen — 12 kills (.205), 14.0 points
Sparked multiple scoring runs and attacked fearlessly in tight moments.

Selah Gregory — 10 kills, 11.0 points
Provided crucial swings across the third and fourth sets.

Setting:

Michelle Striley — 36 assists, 10 digs, 4.0 points
Orchestrated the offense beautifully while directing one of the match's best defensive efforts. Reemphasizing herself as a 2nd Team All-American

Defense:

Jennika Beach — 22 digs (1.000 serve receive), 1 ace
The libero was exceptional, stabilizing the backcourt with near-perfect passing.

Team Defense — 83 digs; 5.0 total blocks

Match Notes

Emmaus finished with 47 kills and a team hitting percentage of .151.

The Eagles held Arlington Baptist to .190, despite ABU's 62 total kills.

Serve receive was outstanding—Emmaus totaled a .966 reception percentage.

While it was an amazing effort by the ladies, they fell to 0-1 in the Tournament, and likely need to win both games tomorrow if they want to qualify for the Semi-Finals.

Up Next: The Eagles play games 2 and 3 of pool play against Pensacola Christian College and Alice Lloyd at 11:30 AM and 7:30 PM, respectively.