West Liberty, W. Va. – On Tuesday night, the 2023-24 "The Battle for Wheeling" moved to the Volleyball court at West Liberty University. The Wheeling University Volleyball team (12-6, 4-1) took the trip up the hilltop to battle West Liberty, and came away with a 3-0 sweep. It was the second Mountain East Conference (MEC) sweep for the Cardinals this season as they continue through the stretch run.
After West Liberty took an early lead in the first set, scoring four of the first six points, a service error flipped the script back to the Cardinals.
Riley Kindall would follow that with a kill and the Cardinals used that to go on a 5-1 run and built an 8-5 lead. However, the Hilltoppers battled back and the two teams went back and forth throughout the early portion of the set. The two teams battled to a 15-15 score and a West Liberty kill gave the Hilltoppers a 16-15 lead. Kindall got the Cardinals back with a kill and they would go on an 8-2 run that gave them some insurance going ahead 23-18. Two points later,
Katie Wilking put down a kill that set up set point and three points later, a
Tylah Yeomans kill gave Wheeling the 25-21 set one win and a 1-0 lead in the match.
Yeomans continued to swing in the second set, as she knocked down the first kill to give Wheeling a 1-0 lead. Wheeling would use that to build their biggest lead of the match so far as they scored seven of the first 10 points to take a 7-3 lead. It was the first of several runs for the Cardinals during the set as they continued to pull away from the Hilltoppers. Their next run came a few points later as the Cardinals knocked down eight kills as part of a 9-2 run. Yeomans, Kindall, and
Katie Wilking each had two kills during the run and the Cardinals built a 16-7 lead. They went on two more runs during the set of 5-1 and 4-2 and they set up set point at 24-12. The final kill of the set came from
Josie Schroder as she gave Wheeling a 25-12 win and the Cardinals went up 2-0.
West Liberty would try and stay alive in set three and, like they did in set one, took an early 7-6 lead through the first 13 points. Kindall would tie the set at 7-7 and she would knock down three kills as part of an 8-2 run that put the Cardinals ahead 14-9. As the Cardinals continued to build their lead, they set up match point at 24-17 on an attack error. However, the Hilltoppers stayed alive as they went on a 4-0 run to get the score to 24-21. However, the comeback was stopped when Yeomans knocked down the 15th kill of her night as she gave Wheeling the 25-21 victory. It was the third consecutive sweep for the Cardinals as they continue through the home stretch towards the MEC Tournament.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was junior
Riley Kindall, who finished with 19 kills and 11 digs on the day. It was her eighth double-double of the season and she led the Cardinals with a .450 hitting percentage on the night. The other Cardinal to finish in double figure kills was
Tylah Yeomans, who finished with 15 kills on the night.
Karly Niesen led the offensive effort with 43 assists and helped the Cardinals to a .358 hitting percentage on the night. It was their second highest hitting percentage of the year and the third time this season that the team has had a .300+ hitting percentage. On the defensive end, junior
Chylyn Pate got her second straight start as Libero and led the way with 16 digs.
Melia Gorrell and
Tylah Yeomans finished with 12 digs each to round out the day.
The Wheeling University Volleyball team returns to action on Friday, October 13th, when they host West Virginia Wesleyan with tip-off at 7 PM.
