In front of a sea of white in the stands, the Wheeling University Volleyball team (12-6, 5-0) played their first edition of "The Battle for Wheeling" in front of their home crowd. The Cardinals gave those fans a lot to cheer about throughout the night as they swept their rival West Liberty 3-0. Wheeling hit .238 as a team throughout the night and finished with their strongest showing of the night to earn the sweep.
The Cardinals got the night started off strong, scoring the first six points of the night to take a 6-0 lead. Riley Kindall helped get the run started with a kill and added one more to get her day started. The Hilltoppers battled back to make it a 10-7 set but, as quickly as they battled back, the Cardinals would go on another run. This time, a Mady Winters kill started a 5-0 run that stretched things to a 15-7 Wheeling advantage. The Hilltoppers got to within four points of the Cardinals in the late going if the set, with Wheeling leading 19-15, but that is as close as they would get. Wheeling held set point at 24-20 and a West Liberty service error gave the Cardinals the 25-20 set win and the 1-0 lead in the match
In set two, the Cardinals came out strong again, leading 4-1, but this time the Hilltoppers didn't let things get too far as they battled to a 5-5 tie. After West Liberty took their first set lead of the night at 6-5, a back and forth began. The set lead changes hands two more times until the Cardinals held a 14-13 advantage. That's when Wheeling got going with a Kindall kill that startsmed a 5-0 run that made it a 19-13 Wheeling lead. The Cardinals allowed just five more Hilltoppers points in the set and Wheeling led 23-18. A pair of West Liberty attack errors gave Wheeling the 25-18 set win and they took a 2-0 lead in the match. With a sweep brewing, Wheeling looked to close our the match in set three.
Melia Gorrell took the server's box to start set three and didn't give up her spot for a while. The Cardinals would score the first 11 points of the set and put the Hilltoppers in an early hole. Lexi Smith started the run with a kill and Allonda Watkins ended with a kill as Wheeling went ahead 11-0. West Liberty tried to battle back, but the Cardinals offense was just too much for the Hilltoppers to handle. A 7-0 run later in the set made it 19-5 Cardinals as they looked to close things out. West Liberty would outscore the Cardinals 8-6 over the final 14 points of the set but the early start brought Wheeling to set point at 24-13. Allonda Watkins would close things out with a kill, ending a strong day and giving Wheeling a 25-13 set win and a 3-9 sweep of the match.
Allonda Watkins led the way with 12 kills on the day and a .409 hitting percentage on the night. Riley Kindall followed behind her with eight kills and Mady Winters added seven on the night. Karly Niesen added 35 assists on the day and a kill of her own as she led the passing game. Tylah Yeomans usually leads the offense, but today had a strong defensive showing with a career-best 18 digs. Chylyn Pate finished behind her with nine digs and Berit Jones added nine digs of her own on the night.
The Wheeling Volleyball team returns to action on Friday, October 7th when they host Concord at 5 PM.
Original source can be found here.
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