Sentinel photo by MIKE GOSS Juniata's Gabby Reed tries to spike the ball as East Juniata's Libby Hoffman tries to block.

MIFFLINTOWN — Familiar rivals took to the volleyball court Monday to renew acquaintances. It was a battle for Juniata County bragging rights when the Juniata Indians hosted East Juniata in their second and final meeting of the year.

“We had a tough start to the match. I wasn’t terribly surprised on nights we have pink outs, senior night and stuff like that. When there is excitement and the crowd in the past we’ve struggled with that,” said Juniata coach Layne Greenholt. “But thankfully we got on track before we dug too deep of a hole for ourselves. Once we got going we kept going.”

Highlighting the match was Juniata’s Miley Hack as she collected career dig number 500.

“She’s (Miley Hack) a captain for a reason. She is our floor general,” said Greenholt. “She’s just been a rock out there for us all year. I always know what I’m going to get when she is on the floor.”

In the first contest, the veteran Lady Indians squad defeated their cross-county foes 3-0 in a Tri-Valley League contest at Cocolamus.

The Indians would sweep the season series 3-0 (25-19, 25-11, 25 -15) taking the season series and bragging rights for the next year.

Despite the 3-0 loss, the East Juniata Tigers didn’t go away easily as they battled hard, especially in games one and three.

“The first and third games I thought we were really serving aggressively. We were running offense and really well in server save and doing everything we were supposed to do,” said Chloe Rougeau. “In the second set, I think we just got caught on server save.”

The Indians kept East Juniata player front row threat Libby Hoffman quiet for most of the contest.

However, she came alive in game three and made her presence known.

The Lady Tigers were looking to split the season series at one while the Indians’ squad was looking for the season sweep.

Also, throwing in a “Think Pink” night for both teams in their recognition of cancer awareness, the off court unity was evident as well.

In the first set, the Lady Tigers got off to a sizzling start by building up an early 4-1 advantage.

Leading the run was Kennedy Seigler-Lewis who ran off three consecutive service points, one of which was an ace.

But back came the Indians as they rallied to take back the lead.

After a Juniata side out which was ended by a cross-court slam by Hannah Graybill, the Indians rolled off three consecutive service points from the arm of Hope Kehler, putting her team ahead 5-4.

East Juniata bounced back into the contest as it countered with another run of its own.

This time it would be Hoffman hitting from the service line on three consecutive service points to put her squad up 8-5.

The two would battle toe-to-toe for much of the early part of the game.

Tied at 12, the Indians started to distance themselves from the Tigers, keeping a two-point advantage until their side got a 17-14 advantage.

Posting two more consecutive serve points once again was Kehler, putting her team ahead 19-14.

The Tigers stayed within striking distance but could not make any ground, falling 25-19.

Juniata continued its feverish play into the second game as the Indians jumped out to a 9-1 advantage and never looked back as they dominated game two 25-11.

Juniata took care of the third and final set, 25-15, giving them the 3-0 sweep of their rivals.

In the junior varsity contest, Juniata swept the feisty East Juniata unit, 2-0.