Charleston, W. Va. – It was a special edition of "The Battle for Wheeling" on Friday night in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) semifinals the Wheeling University Volleyball team (25-7, 15-1) battled West Liberty. After dropping the first set of the night, the Cardinals came back strong with three straight sets wins to take the 3-1 victory. The Cardinals advance to the MEC Championship game for the 10th time in program history as they chase down the program's 10th title.
Both teams were fired up for the first set of the night, and the Hilltoppers would be first out of the gate scoring nine of the first 13 points. Wheeling found themselves behind 9-4, but went on a 3-0 run to cut that Hilltopper lead to 9-7. After two more Hilltoppers points, the Cardinals came storming backs pair of Mady Winters kills. The Cardinals cut the Hilltoppers lead to 11-10, but the Hilltoppers kept scoring and continued to hold the lead at 14-12.
Allonda Watkins picked up a kill to keep the Cardinals alive and three points later the Cardinals had their first lead at 15-14. However, the Hilltoppers would end up getting the better of Wheeling in the first set, picking up a 25-20 win and taking the early 1-0 lead.
Although the Cardinals dropped the opening set, they didn't let it get in their heads. An attack error by the Hilltoppers got Wheeling the ball and Watkins and
Tylah Yeomans picked up kills to give Wheeling a 3-0 early lead. However, the Hilltoppers were at it again as they went on an 8-1 run and controlled the early part of the set leading 8-4. They extended their lead to 11-5 and the set was hanging in the balance for the Cardinals. A Yeomans kill got things back on track for the Cardinals as they began to fight back in the set. The Cardinals rode that kill to a 7-2 run that put Wheeling ahead 14-13 at the midway point of the set. The Hilltoppers maintained a slight lead at 18-17, but the Cardinals would hit a late run at 5-0 to make it a 22-17 score. The Hilltoppers managed to make it a 23-22 score, but two straight points from the Cardinals gave them a 25-22 set win and evened the match at 1-1.
Set three also began with a back and forth competitive flair, but once again West Liberty led 7-4. They would push that lead to 10-6 before a service error put the ball back in Wheeling's court. Wheeling would take advantage scoring five of the next seven points to cut the Hilltoppers lead to 12-11. The Hilltoppers would make it a 13-11 set before Wheeling went on their biggest run of the night. They scored eight straight points, led by two Watkins kills and made it 19-13 as the set moved to the later stages. West Liberty got as close as 23-17, but an attack error made it set point Wheeling. Mady Winters would slap down the kill as Wheeling took the 25-17 win and took their first advantage of the night at 2-1 in the match.
As they headed to set four, things began to change as the Cardinal's offense got out to a strong start. The Cardinals would score four of the first five points in the set and just kept going as they extended their lead to 10-4. After a West Liberty point, Yeomans slapped down a kill to get the ball back to Wheeling and they pushed their set lead to 10 at 15-5. A 6-0 Hilltoppers run would make it a set again, but Wheeling was once again at it with a 4-0 run that made it 19-11. The Hilltoppers continued to fight and nearly caught up to the Cardinals, making it a 20-17 set in the late going. It got as close as 23-19 before
Lexi Smith got it to match point at 24-19. It would be sophomore Riley Kindall who ended the night with a kill and Wheeling went on to win the set 25-19 and win the match 3-1.
It was a competitive match throughout the night, as it always is when these two teams meet, and Head Coach
Christy Benner alluded to that challenge. She says her team was able to step up when they needed to after a slow start and turn things around.
"I knew going into it that it was going to be a dog fight and it was," said Benner. "West Liberty has a great team, they had a great year, and they are well coached. We came out and I feel like they did wahy they wanted in the first set and we were on our heels a little bit. Luckily we made some adjustments, stepped up and played real well in the second half of the match."
The Cardinals showed their ability to fight back throughout the night and were led by strong efforts from
Allonda Watkins and
Tylah Yeomans. Both finished with 14 kills as they led the team to a .246 hitting percentage.
Karly Niesen was once again the leader of the offense for the Cardinals and led the way with 41 assists in the match. The defense was also led by Niesen, who finished with 13 digs on the evening to round out her strong match. Melia Gorrell added 12 digs of her own while Berit Jones put up 11 digs to round out the night.
The Wheeling University Volleyball team now heads to the 2022 MEC Championship game when they take on The University of Charleston Saturday at 6 PM. You can watch the game live by clicking
HERE or follow along with Live Stats by clicking
HERE.
