WHEELING, W.Va. (Nov. 9) - The No. 13 Wheeling Jesuit University volleyball team moved on to the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Tournament Championship Match with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-17) win over West Liberty in a semifinal match Friday night inside the McDonough Center.
The Cardinals (33-3) will face No. 4 seed Charleston tomorrow, Saturday, November 10 at 5 p.m. inside the McDonough Center. Charleston scored a 3-1 upset win over No. 2 seed Shepherd in the other semifinal match. Meanwhile, the Hilltoppers fall to 24-10 overall and await to see if they will earn a berth into the NCAA Tournament next week.
Recently crowned MEC Player of the Year
Haley Kramer (Norwalk, Ohio/Monroeville) finished with 12 kills on 20 attacks (one error) to post a .550 hitting percentage to lead the team to the win. Sophomore
Cassie Meyer (Jackson Center, Ohio/Jackson Center) recorded a team-high 13 kills, while classmate
Makenna Babb (Arlington, Ohio/McComb) chipped in 10 kills in the win.
"I'm really excited for the team," said Head Coach
Christy Benner. "We are really excited to be back in the championship match again. The girls really stepped up. They listened to everything we were telling them to do."
The Hilltoppers gave Wheeling Jesuit's hitters fits in the first set. West Liberty took leads of 15-9 and 18-13, before the Cardinals mounted a comeback. After trailing for the majority of the set, WJU tied the game at 21-21 and won four of the next six points to close out a come-from-behind 25-23 win. West Liberty forced several hitting errors and held the Cards to a .170 hitting percentage in the set.
Wheeling Jesuit took command of the match in the next two sets. They never trailed in the second set and built a 19-9 lead before outlasting West Liberty with a 25-20 victory.
Both squads traded points early in the third set and were tied at 12-12. The Cardinals dominated the rest of the set, claiming 13 of the final 17 points to close out a convincing 3-0 sweep and clinch a berth in the MEC Tournament Final.Â
Junior
Stephanie Sylvester (Oregon, Ohio/St. Ursula Academy) tossed around 42 assists to guide the offense, while sophomore libero
Audrey Francis (Sidney, Ohio/Fairlawn) led the defense with 15 digs.
"West Liberty battled us extremely well," Benner added. "They have seniors that have been here and played in these types of games, and they came up big for them. We were able to neutralize that a little bit with what we were doing on our side and I'm really proud of them."
Wheeling Jesuit will seek a sixth-straight MEC Tournament Championship and the league's automatic-qualifier into the NCAA Division II Tournament tomorrow, Saturday, November 10 when it hosts Charleston at 5 p.m.
