WHEELING, W.Va. (Nov. 10) - The No. 13 Wheeling Jesuit University volleyball team secured its sixth-straight Mountain East Conference (MEC) Tournament Championship with a convincing 3-0 (25-12, 25-17, 25-14) win over Charleston Saturday evening inside the McDonough Center.
The Cardinals (34-3) earn the automatic qualifier from the MEC into the NCAA Division II Tournament and will await to see its first-round destination and opponent during the NCAA Selection Show tomorrow, Sunday, November 11 on NCAA.com.
"I thought we had great energy," said Head Coach
Christy Benner. "The girls stuck to the game plan and played extremely well. All of our players stepped up when they were called on and stepped up together."
Sophomore
Makenna Babb (Arlington, Ohio/McComb) led WJU with a kill-dig double-double of 12 kills and 13 digs. Junior
Cassie Meyer (Jackson Center, Ohio/Jackson Center) posted 14 kills, while redshirt-sophomore
Breanna Kramer (Norwalk, Ohio/Monroeville) added eight in the win.
Junior
Stephanie Sylvester (Oregon, Ohio/St. Ursula Academy) guided the offense with 40 assists and tallied 13 digs for a double-double, while sophomore
Audrey Francis (Sidney, Ohio/Fairlawn) led the defense with 24 digs. Sylvester, Francis, Meyer and junior
Haley Kramer (Norwalk, Ohio/Monroeville) were all named to the MEC All-Tournament Team following the match.
The Cardinals got off to a fast-start and matched the high-energy that Charleston brought to the court. WJU scored the game's first four points and eventually built up a 17-10 lead to force a UC timeout. The Golden Eagles closed the gap to five, 17-12, before the Cardinals scored eight-straight points to close out a dominant 25-12 win. WJU left nothing to chance in the third set and cruised to the 25-14 set win to clinch the MEC Tournament Championship.
WJU and UC were tight in the second set, with the Cardinals holding on to a 17-16 lead, but another big run ended things quickly. Wheeling Jesuit scored on eight of the final nine points to win 25-17 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Wheeling Jesuit defense flustered the Golden Eagles all night. Charleston was held to hitting percentages under .100 in each of the first two sets, while the Cardinals posted a team hitting percentage of .318 for the match. WJU closed out the match with an impressive 21 kills in the third set to secure the championship.
"I'm excited to have another championship," added Benner. "I'm excited for next week, but we want to really enjoy this for a little while."
