Denver, Co. – The Wheeling University Volleyball team (1-5, 0-0) began their trip to Colorado with a day of ranked matches on day one of the Colorado Premiere Tournament. Each of their two opponents were ranked in the top 15 in the nation and despite battling in both sets, the Cardinals dropped both matches. They took on #13 Chaminade in their opener, falling 3-0, and rounded out the night with a 3-0 loss to #2 Wayne State College.
Game One: #13 Chaminade 3, Wheeling 0
The day against Nationally ranked opponents began as Wheeling battled #13 Chaminade in their first match. Set one would be the closest of the match, and it was the Cardinals who got out in front early on a Karly Niesen kill. They would score the first two points of the match and it would be back and forth until the Silverswords held an 8-6 lead. Wheeling would hit their first big run of the day, a 7-1 swing, that put the Cardinals up 13-9. A 4-1 Sliversword's run later in the set brought the score to 19-18 and the battle would continue. Wheeling had Chaminade on the ropes, with the score sitting at 24-21 before the SilverSwords went on a run. They scored three straight points to force a win-by-two scenario and ended up taking it the rest of the way to bring their run to an end at five. They won the set 26-24 and had momentum heading into set two.
They extended their streak to six straight points, s coring the first point of the second set, before Mady Winters brought the run to an end. The teams remained tied at 4-4 in the early portion, before Wheeling held a slight two-point advantage. They would lead 6-4. Chaminade would battle back to tie things at 11-11 and headed on an 8-2 run that extended their lead to 19-13. Chaminade would maintain the lead the rest of the set, setting up set point at 24-18. The Cardinals would stay alive with three straight points as Riley Kindall started what would be an overall strong day for the senior. She rattled off three straight kills from setter Karly Niesen and kept the Cardinals alive at 24-21. The Cardinals luck would end up running out as Chaminade's Malena Mihalik would put down the final kill as they picked up a 25-21 set two win.
In set three, the Cardinals were fighting for their lives and after giving up the first point of the set would give up three straight points. After taking advantage of a pair of SilverSword errors, Lainey Simmons would smack down the kill to give Wheeling a 3-1 lead. Chaminade would the. Flip the script with a 9-2 run that put them back in front 10-5. A pair of attack errors would get the Cardinals back on the board, but Chaminade had the momentum as they extended their lead to as much as 19-11 late in the set. Winters and Katie Wilking would each pick up kills over the set's final 10 points, but Chaminade had set point at 24-15. They would knock down the final kill and took a 25-15 set win And a 3-0 win of the match.
It was Riley Kindall leading the way for the Cardinals as she finished with 12 kills and a .235 hitting percentage. Kindall has continued her success both on the front line and back line to start 2024 and piled on six digs to round out her day. Setter Karly Niesen led the offense with 29 assists, while Mady Winters was the team's most efficient hitter with six kills and a .313 hitting percentage. Olivia Batch would lead the defensive effort with 11 digs on the night to round out the match. The Cardinals would look to bounce back as they headed into match two against the #2 team in the country.
Game Two: #2 Wayne State College 3, Wheeling 0
The Cardinal's second match of the night would see them take on #2 Wayne State College and, like match one, the Cardinals would find success early. After the Wildcats scored the first point of the set, the Cardinals would add the next two points to take a 2-1 lead. It would continue to be back and forth between the two teams in the early going and the teams would sit tied at 8-8. Wayne State College would go on the first big run of the day, scoring seven of the next nine points as they jumped out to a 15-10 lead. That lead would be pushed to 17-11 before the Cardinals got in on the run game, scoring five of the next six points and making it a two-point match. It would remain a two-point match until Wayne State held a 22-20 lead. Two-straight Wildcats points would set up set point at 24-20. Kindall would smack down one final kill, but Wayne State College would win the set 25-21.
In set two, it was Mady Winters that got things started, knocking down the first two kills of the set as Wheeling got out to a 4-2 lead. Wheeling would extend that lead to 6-3 after a kill by Katie Wilking and a bad set, but Wayne State College would answer with a 5-2 run as they tied the set at 8-8. An 11-2 Wildcats run would open things up to 17-9 before Mady Winters put it to a halt with her third kill of the set. However, the high powered Wildcats offense just kept on scoring and the score would sit at 23-13 late in the set. Kindall stepped in once again to keep her team alive with a kill, but an immediate answer from Wayne State College set up set point at 24-14. They would end the set on the next point with a kill from Brooklyn Kusler and Wayne State would win the set 25-14. For the second time today, the Cardinals trailed 2-0 and they looked to finish things off in the third set.
Set three began as a set of runs with Wayne State College scoring four of the first five points of the set. Wheeling answered with a run of their own, this time a 5-1 run, and the Cardinals would lead 6-5 early on. After a few lead changes, Wayne State would hold a slim 10-9 lead, and extended it to 13-9 after three straight points. Winters would knock down a kill that kicked off a 5-0 Cardinal run as they caught Wayne State College once again and trailed by just one point. However, a 6-0 Wayne State College run would end up opening the set up for good as the Wildcats took a 19-14 lead. The Cardinals would continue to battle and when the Wildcats had match point at 24-20, Wheeling stayed alive. A Wildcat service error and attack error kept Wheeling in front, but it was a kill by the Wildcat's Brooklyn Kusler that would end the set at 25-22 an give Wayne State College the 3-0 win.
For the second straight match, Riley Kindall would lead the way with 15 kills on 39 total attacks for a .308 hitting percentage. She upped her hitting percentage by nearly 50 points from the first match as she continues her hot start to the season. Mady Winters finished behind her with eight kills, while hitting .263, while Karly Niesen added 29 assists in the match. Giana Mutersbaugh took the lead on the defensive side, picking up 11 digs on the day wile Niesen and Faith Keifer each added six digs to round out the night.
Day two of the Colorado Premiere Tournament will tip-off on Saturday when Wheeling battles Central Missouri with tip-off at 11:30 AM.
