Pittsburgh, PA. - The Wheeling University Volleyball team (20-9, 11-2) kicked off a road and home weekend with an hour trip up I-79 to battle Point Park. The Cardinals kept their winning ways going against Point Park, earning a 3-0 sweep to advance to 11-2 n Mountain East Conference (MEC) play. It was once again an efficient Cardinal offense that led the effort, with the Cardinals hitting .354 as a team in the three-set victory.
Point Park would bring the battle to the Cardinals in set one, scoring five of the first seven points of the first set to take a 5-2 advantage. Mady Winters would be the one to break the string with a kill that sent the Cardinals on a 5-0 run as they retook the lead at 7-5. The early portion of the set would be a battle of runs, with the lead changing hands three times on three separate runs. Point Park would hold the lead late in the set at 19-18, but a service error would tie things up at 19-19. From there, the two teams battled to a win-by-two scenario. It would be Katie Wilking in the middle of the net that got the extra points started with a kill, and the Cardinals set up set point. An attack error by the Pioneers would end the first set as the Cardinals took a 26-24 set win and a 1-0 lead in the match.
Riding off the momentum from the set one win, Wheeling would come out in set two and be the first to hit a run. With the match tied at 2-2, Riley Kindall would knock down a kill that sent the Cardinals on a 5-0 run. Four different Cardinals would pick up kills on the run as Wheeling was out to their biggest lead of the night. Point Park would momentarily break the run, bringing the score to 8-5, but Aly Finch got them going once again. Finch would knock down two kills as part of a 7-1 run, and the Cardinals opened up the set even more at 15-6. Finch would continue to play a big role as the set rolled on, knocking down a team-high four kills during that second set. Her final of those four kills made it a 23-17 Cardinal lead, but the Pioneers once again tried to fight back. They scored three straight points, but a Samantha Comer kill made it set point at 24-20. Point Park would get one more point in the set before Lindsey James shut things down with a kill and the Cardinals went up 2-0 with a 25-21 set two win.
The Cardinals were looking to complete the sweep, scoring the first point of set three on an attack error. The two teams would trade the first eight points of the set, before a service error got the Cardinals off and running. They went off on their biggest run of the night, scoring 10 of the next 12 points and opening the set up at 14-6. Kindall, Winters, and Karly Niesen each picked up kills on the run and another 5-2 run made it 20-10 and Wheeling was looking to end the night on a high note. However, Point Park had other ideas as they outscored the Cardinals 7-3 and got back to within eight points at 23-15. They added two more before Finch knocked down a kill and the match would hang in the balance. Kindall would stop it right there with a kill to give the Cardinals a 25-17 set three win and the 3-0 sweep of the match.
It was consistent hitting that led the Cardinals on the night, and leading in that category was Katie Wilking in the middle of the net. She knocked down eight kills on 18 total attacks for a .444 hitting percentage to lead the Cardinals, and she was one of two Cardinals to hit over .400 on the night. Aly Finch would be the other, finishing with 10 kills and a .409 hitting percentage while Riley Kindall led the Cardinal's offensive effort with 12 kills. Karly Niesen had another big night, finishing with 39 assists as she now needs just 41 assist to reach the all-time assists record. Leading the defense was senior Berit Jones, who finished with 13 digs, while Chylyn Pate added 11 digs to round out the night.
The Wheeling University Volleyball team returns to action on Saturday, November 9th, when they host Lake Erie College on senior day, with tip-off at 3 PM. You can watch the game live by clicking HERE or follow along with Live Stats by clicking HERE.
