The Muhlenberg volleyball team split a pair of matches at Juniata, defeating John Carroll in a five-set thriller.

With the win, the Mules (10-4), who have only Centennial Conference matches remaining on their schedule, reached double digits in victories for the 12th straight season and the 31st time in the last 32 seasons. Muhlenberg's four losses have come to four teams - Mary Washington, Eastern, Stevenson and Juniata - who earned bids to the NCAA Tournament last year.

The Mules' latest win came against a strong John Carroll program that reached the Ohio Athletic Conference championship match last year and brought a 9-3 record into the match.

Muhlenberg won the first two sets against John Carroll, 30-28 and 25-20, but dropped the next two and went to a fifth set for the second time this season. The Blue Streaks scored the first two points of the decisive set, then ran off four straight points later in the set to open up an 11-10 lead.

Senior Christina Dalton tied the set with a kill, and after an attack error gave the Mules the lead, Dalton served an ace to make it 13-11.

After John Carroll scored the next point, a kill by freshman Kelliann Keogh and a Blue Streak attack error ended the match.

Junior Esmae Oehler led the attack with 17 kills (two short of her career high), including three in the final set. Freshman Sierra Addy put down a career-high 13 kills on only 20 attempts, hitting .600. 

Dalton (pictured above) finished with 9 kills, 22 assists and 7 digs, while freshman Jenny Ryan had 25 assists, 13 digs and 3 aces.

Senior Alyssa Faville recorded a season-high 34 digs, topping the 30-dig mark for the second time in the last three matches.

Faville also had 24 digs in only three sets in the first match of the day, a loss to top-ranked defending national champion Juniata. She now has 1,229 career digs, moving into eighth place on the Mules' all-time list.