Box Score Pensacola, Fl. – The Wheeling University Volleyball team (0-1, 0-0) is starting the 2022 season off with a bang taking on three ranked teams in their first seven games. They got the season going on Thursday night when they took on #5 West Florida in their first game of the Spring Hill Suites Tournament. They battled to a tie through the first two sets of the match before falling to the Argonauts 3-1 to start the year.

Set one saw West Florida jump out to the early lead, scoring three of the first four points, but Wheeling battled right back and trailed 4-3 through the first seven points. It remained a two-point set through the early part of the first set until a kill from Allonda Watkins and an attack error cut the West Florida lead to 9-8. However, the Argonauts went on a 4-0 run to extend the lead and led 23-12 by the end of the set. Watkins picked up another kill to make it a 23-13 game, but West Florida would score the final two points to take the set 25-13 and take a 1-0 lead. The Cardinals had plenty of opportunities in that first set, with 37 total attacks and they were looking to capitalize on those in the second set.

As set two began, it was Wheeling that took advantage of a West Florida attack error to take a 1-0 lead. The Cardinals held a 6-3 lead after nine points, but the Argonauts would battle back with three straight points to tie things at 6-6. This back and forth would continue through most of the second set with Wheeling taking a lead and West Florida battling back to tie the game. By the end of the set, things were tied at 24-24 and the two teams entered a win-by-two scenario. Tylah Yoemans got the series started with a kill that gave Wheeling a 25-24 lead and West Florida responded to tie things at 25-25. Riley Kindall would lead the Cardinals from there, registering back-to-back kills to give Wheeling the 27-25 win and tie the match at 1-1.

With both teams holding a win, the back and forth began again in set three as it was 4-4 after the first eight points. However, it was West Florida that took the first advantage, going on a 6-0 run to open their lead to 9-4. They continued to build on their lead, and had a 17-7 advantage late in the set. When the score crept to 20-9, Wheeling turned on the offense and tried to battle back in the game. Kindall and Cassidey Wiley registered back-to-back kills that sparked a 7-2 Wheeling run that made it a 23-16 set. However, West Florida would finish things out and took a 2-1 lead with a 25-16 set win. In the fourth set, West Florida would jump out to a 10-3 lead in the early going and, despite battling back, it was too much to overcome as they won 25-20 to take the 3-1 match win.

Tylah Yoemans led the way for the Cardinals, registering 12 kills and a hitting percentage of .200 in the match. Allonda Watkins and Mady Winters finished right behind her with eight and seven kills respectively, while Lexi Smith finished with six kills in the match. After leading NCAA Division II in Assists per set last season, Karly Niesen picked up right where she left off with a team high 37 assists and three kills in the game. On the defensive sidee of the ball, three different Cardinals finished with double digit digs. Raegan Rosi led the way with 13 digs, followed by Kindall (12) and Yoemans (10).