WHEELING, W.Va. (Sept. 8) – The No. 14 Wheeling Jesuit University volleyball team split a pair of matches on the final day of the Atlantic Region Crossover. The Cardinals were defeated 3-0 by Shippensburg, before closing out the event with a 3-1 win over Pitt.-Johnstown Saturday evening inside the McDonough Center.
Wheeling Jesuit concludes the weekend out with three wins and one loss to move to 9-3 overall. Shippensburg leaves the weekend with four wins and improves to 10-2, while Pitt.-Johnstown drops to 4-6 this season.
Shippensburg 3, No. 14 Wheeling Jesuit 0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-22)
The Red Raiders posted 14 blocks and limited the Cardinals to a .200 hitting percentage in Shippensburg's 3-0 win to open play on Saturday.
Sophomore
Cassie Meyer (Jackson Center, Ohio/Jackson Center) led the Cardinals with a kill-dig double-double of 15 kills and 15 digs in the match. Senior setter
Stephanie Sylvester (Oregon, Ohio/St. Ursula) finished with 45 assists and 13 digs, while sophomore
Audrey Francis (Sidney, Ohio/Fairlawn) tallied 23 digs to lead the team.
Wheeling Jesuit finished the match with more team kills (50) than Shippensburg (48).
Shippensburg was led by Gabriella Johnson, who posted 14 kills and 14 digs in the contest.
No. 14 Wheeling Jesuit 3, Pitt.-Johnstown 1 (23-25, 25-11, 25-16, 25-13)
Junior
Haley Kramer (Norwalk, Ohio/Monroeville) led four players with double-digit kills, as the Cardinals bounced back from an early deficit to defeat Pitt.-Johnstown 3-1 to wrap up the Atlantic Region Crossover Saturday evening.
Kramer posted 16 kills on a .652 hitting percentage and added three blocks (one solo) in the win. Meyer finished the game with 14 kills, while redshirt-sophomore
Breanna Kramer (Norwalk, Ohio/Monroeville) and sophomore
Makenna Babb (Arlington, Ohio/McComb) added 13 and 11 kills, respectively.
Sylvester was the catalyst of the offense with 56 assists to go with her 17 digs. She also chipped in a pair of kills of her own, while Francis led the defense with 24 digs in the win.
Wheeling Jesuit led 21-20 in the first set, before Pitt.-Johnstown used a timeout to regroup. The Mountain Lions came out of the break strong and claimed five of the next seven points to earn a 25-22 set win.
The Cardinals remained poised and responded with a 25-11 second-set win. WJU led 12-9, before rolling off eight-unanswered points to race out to a 20-9 advantage. In total, Wheeling Jesuit picked up 13 of the final 15 points to even the match at one set apiece. The Cardinals limited UPJ to only seven kills and held them to a .033 hitting percentage in the process.
WJU picked up where it left off in the third set. Pitt.-Johnstown got as close as five points, 18-13, before the Cardinals notched seven of the next 10 points to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Wheeling Jesuit put forth its best hitting-set of the evening in the fourth frame. The Cardinals posed a .545 hitting percentage with 19 kills and one error on 33 total attacks to wrap up the 3-1 win. The set was tied at 4-4 early on, before WJU went on a 17-to-6 run to open up a 21-10 advantage that was capped off with a kill by Sylvester.
UPJ was led by Noelle Carota's 14 kills in the loss.
WJU will enter Mountain East Conference (MEC) play on Friday, September 14 when its hosts Shepherd for a match at 7 p.m.
