Wheeling, W. Va. - The 2022 season marked the 10th Mountain East Conference (MEC) Championship for the Wheeling University Volleyball team (26-7, 15-1) as they beat Charleston 3-1. With the win, the Cardinals earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Atlantic Regional Tournament, earning the #3 seed in the bracket. While they won't be hosting the tournament for the first time since the 2012 season, they will hit the road to Erie, Pennsylvania when they take on the #6 seeded Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) Friday with tip-off at noon.
The Cardinals claimed their 10th conference title when they took down Charleston 3-1, after a comeback effort. The Cardinals dropped set one 25-23 and fell behind 1-0 in the match for the second consecutive match. However, just as they did the night before, the Cardinals were able to battle back to win the final three sets. Over those final three sets, the Cardinals hit the ball well, posting hitting percentages of .400, .256, and .342 to end the night. As a team, the Cardinals hit .312 for the match as they relied on the MEC's strongest offensive attack to lead them to their conference championship.
Aside from the championship, the team also had several individual successes during the week as they claimed the title. Before the tournament began, the Cardinals had four players earn All-MEC honors for their work during the regular season.
Karly Niesen, Mady Winters, and
Allonda Watkins all earned All-MEC First Team honors while
Tylah Yeomans took home All-MEC Second team honors. As they headed into the conference tournament, the honors just kept coming as three Cardinals landed on the MEC Championship All-Tournament team. Watkins, Niesen and Yeomans gained those honors after all three had strong weeks in Charleston, West Virginia.
The Cardinals biggest effort of the week came in the biggest game from senior
Allonda Watkins. She put together the biggest game of her career in that championship event, finishing with 23 kills and an impressive .487 hitting percentage. It has the potential to be an even bigger week for the redshirt senior as she enters the tournament needing just 58 kills to get to the 1,000-kill mark for her collegiate career. The Cardinals also saw a big showing from sophomore Riley Kindall, who played big both on the offensive and defensive side of the court. In the conference opener, she finished with a career-high 18 digs against Glenville State and totaled 36 dogs for the tournament. Meanwhile, on offense the sophomore had 13 kills in the conference championship and totaled 25 across the three-game stretch.
As the Cardinals head into NCAA Atlantic Regional play, they enter as the #3 seed, sitting below the #1 mark for the first time since the 2012 season when the tournament was hosted by CAL-U. They open tournament play on Friday when they battle #6 seeded IUP at noon in the first game of the entire tournament. It will be the first of four day one games, and the winner of 3/6 will take on the winner of #7 West Liberty and #2 Clarion on Saturday at 5:30 PM. The NCAA Atlantic Regional Championship game will them follow on Sunday, November 20th, with tip-off at 5 PM. The Cardinals have been in the NCAA Atlantic Regional Championship game every year since the 2011 season and look to return to that championship match again here in 2022.
The Matchup
The Cardinals and Crimson Hawks are meeting for the 15th time in program history and just the second time in postseason competition. Wheeling leads the all-time series with a record of 13-2 overall and has the advantage in the postseason series at 1-0. Wheeling also holds a 4-0 record against IUP in neutral site matches as they look to keep that string alive with the opener on Friday afternoon. The last meeting between these two teams came during the 2019 season in a match that Wheeling won 3-0 inside the Alma Grace McDonough Center.
Former Cardinals Haley Kramer and Abby Strait led the offense with 12 and 10 kills respectively in the game while former Cardinal setter
Stephanie Sylvester picked up 37 assists. The defense was led by former Cardinal
Audrey Francis, who finished with 18 digs, and Kramer, who totaled four blocks on the day.
The Details
The Wheeling University Volleyball team's round one NCAA Atlantic Regional Tournament match is scheduled for Friday at noon inside the Highmark Events Center on the campus of Gannon University. You can watch the match live by clicking HERE or follow along with Live Stats by clicking HERE.
