Wheeling, W. Va. - With The hopes of hosting The Mountain East Conference (MEC) over, the Wheeling University volleyball team (22-7, 14-1) now looks to end the regular season with momentum before hitting the road for the tournament. It will be a big final regular season match as they play in "The Battle for Wheeling" for the second time this season on the road against West Liberty on Friday. Both teams are ranked in the NCAA DII week 2 rankings for the Atlantic Region as they both position for a possible spot in the regional tournament.

Last time out, the Cardinals defeated Alderson Broaddus 3-0 on the road. It was a match that was heavily led by the offense as the team put together a season best .416 hitting percentage for the night. The Cardinals used their front line to their advantage with all four of their leading hitters having big days. Wheeling took the first set 25-17 and followed it with a 25-14 win in set two to take a 2-0 lead in the match. However, their best performance came in the third set of the night when they scored the first eight points and ended up holding a 13-2 lead after the sets first 15 points. The Cardinal defense stepped up allowing just seven Battler points in the set and Wheeling wrapped up the sweep with a 25-7 set win and moved to 14-1 in MEC play.

After being named the MEC Offensive Player of the Week last week, setter Karly Niesen once again led the offense this time to their best day of the season. It was the first time the Cardinals have hit over .400 this season Thanks to Niesen's sets throughout the night. The junior ended the night with 33 assists and added a kill of her own to the Wheeling offensive attack. That offensive attack has been one of the best in all of NCAA DII with the Cardinals currently holding the second highest hitting percentage among all DII schools across the country at .295. Last season Niesen led the country in a assists per set and is now helping lead the offense to be one of the best in all of Division II.

After Niesen sets the ball, the front line does the rest with two of their top attackers having big nights. Tylah Yeomans led the way with 15 kills on the night and hitting impressive .538 in the match. Yeomans has had a breakout season for the Cardinals this year and currently leads the team with 359 kills. Her previous career high was 70 kills last season as she is taking on her new role and running with it. Allonda Watkins finished right behind her with 12 kills and is having the best season of her career with 312 kills. Watkins is coming up on a career milestone needing just 118 more kills to reach the 1,000 kill mark for her career. If the Cardinals are able to make a deep run in both the MEC and the regional tournaments she could catch that mark to end her collegiate career.

After Tuesday's win, the Cardinals officially clinched the MEC North Division title with a 14-1 record. On the same night, the University of Charleston earned the MEC south division title bringing up the tiebreaker to see who would host the tournament. With Charleston having beaten Wheeling earlier in the year the Golden Eagles earned the right to host the 2022 MEC tournament. With the chance of hosting gone, the Cardinals are now looking for momentum for the playoffs and to also help their standing in the Atlantic region. West Liberty ranked number eight in the Atlantic region in the most recent poll and a Cardinal win on Friday could help them solidify their number two spot in the regional standings.

The Matchup