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16 vb emma elite8
3
Winner Lewis LEWIS 29-7
0
Wheeling Jesuit WJU 41-3
Winner
Lewis LEWIS
29-7
3
Final
0
Wheeling Jesuit WJU
41-3
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Lewis LEWIS 25 26 30 (3)
Wheeling Jesuit WJU 17 24 28 (0)

Game Recap: Volleyball | | Chris Myers

Cardinals Repeat Attempt Stopped by Flyers in Elite Eight

Post Match Press Conference
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The six senior-led Cardinals battled through to a marathon third set, but their National Championship repeat was stopped by the Flyers. Lewis University rode a hot match start and hung on to two extended-point sets for the 3-0 win over Wheeling Jesuit in the NCAA Division II Volleyball Elite Eight Thursday night.
 
No. 5 seed Lewis (29-7) netted the match's opening four points and eight of the first nine on its way to a 25-17 first set win. No. 4 seeded WJU (41-3) held leads of 18-14 and 21-18, but it was unable to close out the set and fell 26-24 in set 2. The Cards staved off two third-set, match-points, but they were unable to close out three set points as the Flyers outlasted them, 30-28, and completed the straight-set win.
 
"Lewis did a great job and played us very well. I am just upset we didn't play up to our expectations," said WJU head coach Christy Benner. "It was one of those days where no matter what we did, no matter who we put in, what rotation we were in, we just weren't playing well. Normally, when someone is shutting down one of our hitters, someone else steps up and it just wasn't working tonight.
 
We started to do some good things in the second and third sets, but it just wasn't enough. We couldn't go on one of those runs and when we did have a lead we couldn't keep it," continued the coach. "When you have those days, you just scratch your head and you think – we go to start over, but, guess what, there's no tomorrow. For these six seniors, it just breaks my heart."
 
The six Cardinals seniors – Andrea Thobe, Haley Kindall, Kayce Krucki, Emma Schleucher, Sam Obringer and Katie Campbell – played in their final matches of the most prolific four-year run in WJU history. The senior group posted a 156-17 record, a .900 winning percentage, with the three highest program single-season win totals. WJU also captured the University's first National Championship last year to go with a Final Four (2013) and two Elite Eights (2014 & 2016), while it won four NCAA Atlantic Regional, four Mountain East Conference Regular Season and four MEC Tournament crowns. 
 
"I have said it before how wonderful these kids are. They're smart, they're all going to graduate, they're all going to do great things when they graduate from Wheeling," pointed out Benner. "They have just been the light of the program for the last four years and how much fun they are to be around.
 
It is real easy to coach when you have players who are fun to be around, do everything that we ask and work hard. Just unfortunate we have to go out like this, but to have a National Championship and to have a record they have had and all the accomplishment is just wonderful for them," concluded the WJU coach.
 
Schleucher and Sydney Obringer downed a team-high nine kills. Breanna Kramer chipped in seven kills, 19 digs, two assists and an ace.
 
Kindall added five kills and a pair of block assists, while Campbell hit three kills and a block assist.
 
Thobe handed out 35 assists to go with 11 digs and two kills.
 
On the defense, Krucki dug 26 attacks and Sam Obringer had eight.
 
Lewis' Aly Schneider and Maddie Seliga paced all match hitters with 15 and 12 kills.
 
In the opening set, the Flyers scored the opening four points on three kills and extended the margin to 8-1. The Cards pulled to within four points, 12-8, but they could get no closer, 25-17.
 
WJU took its first lead early in set two, 3-2, on a Lauran Graves solo block. The Cardinals put the following two points on the scoreboard for a 5-2 lead. Sydney Obringer killed a point for WJU's largest lead of four points, 12-8, and the different was equaled later in the set, 20-16, on a Thobe touch kill. The Flyers, though, scored five of the next six points and tied the set at 21. Campbell helped WJU stave off set point on a slide kill, but Lewis came back for the next two scores and 26-24 set two win.
 
Trailing 16-12 in set three, Kramer killed the next point and Krucki served an ace in a four-point WJU run to tie the set, 16-16. The two evenly-matched teams were tied, once again, a third time in mere minutes at 23. The Cardinals fought off back-to-back match points, 24-24 and 25-24, and edged ahead, 26-25 off a Kindall kill and Flyers bad set. Uncharacteristically, WJU was unable to close out three set points, before Lewis put the final three points on the scoreboard and extra point win, 30-28.
 
The WJU defeat ended the NCAA's longest winning streak at 35 matches and was only the second calendar day all year for it to have a losing day.
 
 
 
 
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