season, the Wheeling University Volleyball team (2-4, 0-0) have traveled to Florida to play in two separate tournaments. This weekend, it is the Cardinal's turn to host as they bring the 2023 Atlantic Regional Crossover to the Alma Grace McDonough Center. Teams from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) and the Mountain East Conference (MEC) will converge on Wheeling, West Virginia for a two-day tournament hosted in conjunction with West Liberty.

The Cardinals are coming off a run at the Bash at the Beach Tournament, hosted by Palm Beach Atlantic University, where they went 1-2 across the three-match set. Of those three matches, two went five sets and one was against a ranked opponent as the Cardinals continued their greuling non-conference stretch. They began the weekend with the most thrilling match of the weekend as they took host Palm Beach Atlantic to five sets. After getting ahead 2-1, Palm Beach Atlantic forced a fifth and deciding set. The Cardinals were able to claim the victory and started off the weekend with a 3-2 win. Unfortunately, the same success would not carry into the rest of the weekend as the Cardinals fell to Lynn and Nova Southeastern to drop to 1-2 on the weekend and 2-4 overall.

Leading the offensive effort for the Cardinals was senior Tylah Yeomans, who was named a member of the Bash at the Beach All-Tournament team. Yeomans finished the weekend with 42 kills and had a .308 hitting percentage or better in all three games. Her biggest effort came against the host Palm Beach Atlantic, where she knocked down a season-high 18 kills while having a .395 hitting percentage. Yeomans finished just four kills shy of her career-high in that match and began the weekend strong. She added two more double digit kills efforts against Lynn and Nova Southeastern, picking up 10 kills against the Knights and 16 against the Sharks. She already has 88 kills and a .335 hitting percentage on the season and looks to continue her success this weekend.

The other leader for the Cardinals this past weekend was Riley Kindall, who has been stepping up both on offense and defense. She was the Cardinals leading attacker in the final game, with 16 kills and led the defense in each of the three matches. Kindall is currently the team's leader in Digs, with 94 whole averaging 3.62 digs per set over the first six matches. Kindall has been a big contributor on the back line in each of her first two seasons, and is taking it to the next level in her junior season. Karly Niesen also continued her strong start to 2023, setting a career-high with 64 assists against Palm Beach Atlantic, and upped her total for the season to 277. She continues her race to 4,000 career assists and needs just 301 more assists to reach that career milestone.

The 2023 NCAA DII Atlantic Regional Crossover will be hosted by both Wheeling University and West Liberty across Friday and Saturday. Both sites will see four different matches as two Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) teams battle a pair of MEC teams on each day. From the MEC, Fairmomt State joins Wheeling and Notre Dame College joins West Liberty at their respective sites. On Friday, Putt Johnstown and Shippensburg will be at Wheeling while Slippery Rock and Clarion head to West Liberty, and the two PSAC teams will switch for Saturday's games. The Cardinals and Hilltoppers have been hosting this tournament every season since 2017, there was no tournament in 2020 due to COVID, and have historically done well, going 18-2 over the previous five Atlantic Region Crossovers. They look to continue that success this weekend as they open in front of their home fans.

The Matchups

Pitt-Johnstown: The Cardinals and Panthers are meeting for the 14th time in program history on Friday, with Wheeling winning each of the previous 13 meetings between the two teams. However, both teams look a lot different now, with the last meeting coming back in 2018. It is the eighth time they will meet at Wheeling, with the Cardinals going 7-0 in those home matches. Their past two matches each went four sets, with Wheeling winning both 3-1, including a 3-1 win in their most recent meeting. Former Cardinals Haley Kramer led the Cardinals in that game with 15 kills, while former Cardinal Audrey Francis had 24 digs.

Shippensburg: The Cardinals and Raiders are meeting for the 17th time in program history, with Wheeling leading the all-time series with a record of 14-2. It will be the 12th times the teams have met in Wheeling, with the Cardinals winning nine of those 12 meetings during that stretch. Shippensburg is making its second trip to this Atlantic Regional Crossover, coming in 2018 as well as last season. In last year's meeting, the Cardinals walked away with a 3-0 win as they split their day one contests. In that match, Riley Kindall led the way with 13 kills while Berit Jones led the way as the Libero with 15 digs on the evening.

Slippery Rock: The Cardinals and The Rock are meeting for the 17th time in program history when they meet on Saturday afternoon, with Wheeling leading the all-time series with a record of 16-1. The Cardinals have hosted Slippery Rock in 11 of those matches and are 11-0 in those previous meeting. Slippery Rock has been to all five Atlantic Region Crossover tournaments, and will be looking for their first win against the Cardinals in tournament play. Last season, the Cardinals defeated the Rock 3-0 on the second day of competition. Tylah Yeomans led the way with 18 kills in that match while Berit Jones finished with 22 digs.

Clarion: The Cardinals and Golden Eagles will be meeting for the 23rd time in program history, with the Cardinals leading the all-time series with a record of 18-4. The two teams had a bit of a rivalry last season, with both being prominent in the Atlantic Regional Tournament race. Wheeling is 12-1 against the Golden Eagles at home, with that loss coming as one of two losses every for the Cardinals in this Atlantic Regional Tournament.  Their last meeting was in the semifinal round of the NCAA DII Atlantic Regional Tournament, in a match that Clarion would win 3-1. Tylah Yeomans would have 15 kills in that match while Melia Gorrell led the way with 14 digs.

The Details

Tip-off for the first game of the 2023 Atlantic Region Crossover tournament is scheduled for Friday at 1 PM with Wheeling taking on Pitt-Johnstown. You can watch the game live by clicking HERE or follow along with Live Stats by clicking HERE.