Wheeling, W. Va. – The 2025 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Volleyball tournament heads to Buckhannon, West Virginia next week, and the Wheeling University Volleyball team (16-13, 10-4) will be one of the eight teams competing for a conference title. On Wednesday, the MEC released their annual All-MEC teams and four Cardinals were recognized for their performance in 2025. Headlining the list was outside hitter Camryn Matus, who earned the MEC Freshman of the Year, while Katie Wilking (1st Team), Cami Black (2nd Team), and Lexi Duplessis (All-Freshman team) were all honored.
As they do every season, the Cardinals started out 2025 with a challenging preseason schedule that saw them go to tournaments in Florida and Michigan, before coming home for the annual Wheeling Invitational. The Cardinals would end up dropping their first eight matches of the year, but hit their stride when it came to their home floor. The Cardinals would win three of the four matches they hosted, and propelled themselves into their MEC schedule. They opened conference play with four straight wins, before taking their first loss at the hands of West Liberty on October 14th. It was the first of back-to-back losses, before the Cardinals hit their stride over their final MEC South stretch. They continued that success into the final divisional push, coming down to the last match, but the Cardinals fell in a five-set classic as Wheeling earned the #3 seed in the MEC North in the conference.
Leading this year's list of honorees is freshman Camryn Matus, who received three different honors on this year's list. She was named the MEC's Freshman of the Year, while also earning 1st Team All-MEC honors and a spot on the MEC's All-Freshman team. Matus stepped up in a big way for the Cardinals this season, leading the way with 287 kills across 29 matches played. She would finish averaging 2.79 kills per set, and hitting a healthy .227 on the court. She also played big in the serving game, finishing with the team lead with 24 service aces on the season. Her biggest match of the season came on October 7th against Frostburg State, when she recorded the first triple-double in the last decade for the Cardinals. She finished third in the conference in total kills and will be a driving force for the Cardinals during their playoff run.
Joining Matus on the first team is junior Katie Wilking, who takes home her first 1st Team honor and her second total All-MEC award. The junior Middle Blocker finished right behind Matus with 245 kills, while leading the Cardinals in hitting percentage (.324), blocks (78.0), solo blocks (14), and block assists (64). Wilking was a force in front of the net, and would sit third in the conference in hitting percentage, while sitting 10th in total blocks. As the season went on, Wilking continued to step up her game, finishing with a .300 hitting percentage or better in four of the last five matches, while hitting the double digit kill mark in three of those. Her best performance came against California (PA.) back on September 20th, where she knocked down 18 kills while holding a .556 hitting percentage, and adding five block assists to round out the effort.
Cami Black is taking home her first career All-MEC honor, earning a spot on the conference's Second Team All-MEC list. Black would miss the second half of the season due to an injury, but still managed to knock down 189 kills across 17 matches, while hitting .194. Black was the Cardinal's kill leader through the first 17 matches of the season, and still is averaging a team-best 3.20 kills/set. She also did her part on the defensive side of the ball, finishing with 63 digs while averaging 1.07 digs/set on the season. She would put together one of her top performances early in the season, picking up her long double-double of the year against Spring Hill College. The junior finished with 15 kills and 12 digs to grab the double-double, while finishing with 51 total attacks in the effort.
Rounding out the list of All-MEC honorees was freshman Lexi Duplessis, who earned a spot on the MEC's All-Freshman team. Duplessis would lead the Cardinal's passing game, finishing with 538 assists and averaging 5.91 assists per set. She made her presence felt on the defensive side of the ball as well, finishing with 30.0 total blocks, two solo and 28 assists. Duplessis would lead all freshmen in assists during the season and sat sixth overall in the conference in both assists and assists/game (6.00). She stepped in as one of two primary setters for the Cardinals this season and joins a list of six freshmen who were honored on this year's All-Freshmen team.
With the Volleyball postseason awards being announced, the Wheeling University Athletic Department has now had 17 student-athletes earn All-Conference honors. The Wheeling Volleyball team finished one shy of their number from last year, where the team finished with five All-MEC honorees. The Wheeling Football team was the last team to be honored, earning 12 All-MEC honors, with three of those being First Team awards.
The Wheeling University Volleyball team kicks off their run in the MEC Volleyball Tournament on Thursday, November 20th, when they take on the University of Charleston at noon.
