Pittsburgh, PA. - The final week of Mountain East Conference (MEC) volleyball action tipped off on Friday inside the Student Center Gym on the campus of Point Park. The Wheeling University Volleyball team (15-12, 10-3) began the stretch strong with a 3-1 victory over Point Park to move to 10-3 in conference play. It was an efficient night for the Cardinals, with the team hitting .300 or better in two of the four sets as they kept their spot on the leaderboard in the race to host the 2025 MEC Tournament.
The Cardinals came out strong in set one as Mara McDougal started things with a kill and scored the first three points of the match. They got out to a 7-3 lead early, but the Pioneers would battle back and tie the set at 7-7 after a 4-0 run. The set would remain tied at 10-10 before Point Park once again took control, this time with a 6-1 run that made it a 16-11 set by the midway point of the set. They extended their lead to 18-13 before Katie Wilking got her team back on a run with a kill and the Cardinals scored five straight points to tie the set at 18-18. The two teams went back and forth over the final stretch, but it was Point Park who set up set point at 24-22. Olivia Batch would keep the Cardinals alive with a kill, but Point Park's Nicole Reasbeck finished things off with a kill that gave the Pioneers a 25-23 win.
The Cardinals headed into set two trailing 1-0, but once again got out to a strong start, after building a 4-2 lead. Camryn Matus would step into the server's box and put together back-to-back service aces that kicked off a 9-1 run. Matus got it started and Olivia Batch finished it with three kills on the run and the Cardinals lead was extended to 12-3. Even after a momentary break in the run by the Pioneers, Wheeling was right back at it as Bella DeBarr knocked down a kill and Wheeling went on another 4-0 run that made it a 17-6 game. Point Park would continue to battle despite the deficit, going on a 5-0 run, but the Cardinal offense had their most efficient set, hitting .370 in the set. Batch would set up set point with a kill and, after a service error kept Point Park alive, Katie Wilking rounded things out with a kill that gave Wheeling the 25-14 win and tied the match at 1-1.
With the match tied at 1-1, the two teams would go back and forth early on trading the first eight points of set three before the Cardinals pulled away once again. This time, it was a kill by Wilking that opened things up and sent Wheeling on a 4-1 run to make it a 9-5 advantage. After back-to-back points from the Pioneers, Lexi Duplessis would knock down a kill and the Cardinals were sent on an 8-2 run that made it a 17-9 Cardinal advantage. It was the first of two runs late for the Cardinals, and they would lead 23-11 with a chance to take their first lead of the match. An attack error from the Pioneers would bring up set point, and Bella DeBarr would knock down the final kill as the Cardinals would pick up a 25-12 win and took a 2-1 lead in the match.
Wheeling would look to close things out in set four and they would take an early advantage, scoring 11 of the first 15 points in the set. Katie Wilking would lead the way with two kills along the way, while four different Cardinals knocked down kills on the run. Wheeling would get out to an 11-4 lead, and were able to reach the 20-point mark while Point Park was still in single digits. Olivia Batch would knock down a kill to bring up set point at 24-13, but Point Park would have one more push to keep the match alive. An attack error would get the run going and the Pioneers would score five straight points to get as close as 24-18 on a Lily Marchand kill. However, the early deficit was too much to overcome as a service error brought the run to an end and the Cardinals would win 25-18 and take the match 3-1.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was Katie Wilking, who finished with 12 kills while being the team's most efficient hitter of the night. She would knock down 12 kills on 27 total attacks, while picking up just three attack errors, to finish with a .333 hitting percentage on the night. The Cardinal's leading attacker was Camryn Matus, who finished with 13 kills, while Olivia Batch finished with a double-double with 10 kills and 12 digs. The back line effort was once again led by Megan Platt, who finished with 26 digs to set a new career high, while Faith Keifer added 12 digs to round things out. It would be a double-double for Keifer, who also led the team with 19 assists, while Lexi Duplessis added 15 assists to round out the night.
The Wheeling University Volleyball team returns to action on Tuesday, November 11th, when they hit the road to face Salem at 7 PM.
