CALIFORNIA, Pa. - For the first time in school history, the Wheeling Jesuit University Volleyball team won the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Championship and advanced to the NCAA's Elite Eight after defeating their arch-nemesis, California University of Pennsylvania, 3-1 inside Hamer Hall.
The Cardinals secured the title in four sets by scores of 25-23, 17-25, 25-21 and 25-19.
In the first set, the two regional giants traded shots, battling blow-for-blow as the Cardinals came away with a 25-23 victory.
With the score tied at 17, two California hitting errors coupled with kills by Jenna Pew and Casey Gates separated the scoreboard by four points in the Cards favor. Cal called a time out and cut the deficit in half with a kill from Brandy Harris and a service ace by Kortney Eshleman.
Casey Gates disrupted California's comeback attempt as she floored a kill from Kristen Dubroy. The two teams traded points until Angela McNulty delivered the final blow.
After California (Pa.) won the second set, WJU bounced back in the third frame with a win. It was close throughout, but a kill by Gates pushed the margin to four, 24-20. An attack error by the home squad gave the Cardinals a 25-21 win.
The final set was a seesaw battle as the two teams went back and forth until Cal delivered a four point run, 9-4. After a Wheeling Jesuit timeout, two California errors separated by an Allissa Ware attack pulled the Cardinals within two.
Ware followed with a second kill, but California continued to control the scoreboard. At 14-12, a California serving miscue and an attacking error knotted the set at 14 apiece. Harris and Gates traded a pair of kills, and Ware delivered back-to-back kills which California never recovered.
Gates, Pew and Ware all posted double-doubles in the four-set win. Gates led the way with 18 kills and tied for a team-high 19 digs. Ware, the WVIAC Player of the Year, accounted for 17 kills and 17 digs while Pew floored 12 kills and dished out 23 assists.
Kristen DuBroy had a team-best 26 assists while chipping in seven digs.
The Cardinals registered a .235 attack percentage and accounted for 73 digs en route to the 2011 NCAA Atlantic Region Championship.
In the past four years Wheeling Jesuit has made four trips to the NCAA Tournament, but came up short. In 2008, the second seeded Cardinals were defeated in the regional final by No. 1 California (pa.), and in 2009, the Vulcans ended their season in the semifinal round while Clarion University upset the Cardinals in last year's semifinal.
Gates, Ware, Pew and Dubroy were all named to the All-Atlantic Region Tournament Team.
