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Balanced Attack Leads Wilmington to Sweep of Bloomfield in Volleyball

BLOOMFIELD, N.J. - - Another dominating performance kept the Wilmington University volleyball team unbeaten in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference as the Wildcats disposed of Bloomfield, 3-0, on Saturday afternoon in Bloomfield Gym.

Set scores for the match were 25-7, 25-18, and 25-19.

The Wildcats (15-4, 6-0 CACC) extended their winning streak to five straight matches, sweeping the conference weekend after defeating Philadelphia on Friday night. The loss was the eighth straight for Bloomfield (1-8, 0-7 CACC) after winning the opening match of the season.

For the second match in a row, the Wildcats spread the offense throughout the entire lineup, using 10 separate players to record a kill. The Wildcats also collected 10 aces on the afternoon and had nine separate players register at least one dig.

Wilmington used a 9-0 run in the first set to set the tone for the match, as sophomore Kasey Couch served the Wildcats on the run. She collected two aces on the streak, while Nicole Wiechecki, Katie Shorter and Alex Siolos picked up kills. The Wildcats went on to score 12 of the first 13 points and opened a 19-5 lead on back-to-back kills by Brittany Biddle. The Wildcats used another six straight points to close out the set, 25-7.

Bloomfield jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set, but the Wildcats responded with five straight of their own to take the lead. Trailing 8-6, Alex Siolos served the team to eight consecutive points to take command of the frame. Now leading 14-10, the Wildcats scored eight of the next nine points to open the margin to 22-11. Freshman Hannah Karas gave the Wildcats set point at 24-17 with her first kill of her collegiate career. The Wildcats used a Deacon hitting error to take the set, 25-18.

The Deacons again jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third set, but the Wildcats got back into the game with five straight points when trailing 7-4. After a back and forth middle of the set, the Wildcats took over down the stretch to win the set and the match. Trailing 16-16, the Wildcats rallied to score three straight, five of the next six, and nine of the next 11 points overall to jump to a 24-18 lead. Shorter shouldered much of the run, connecting on five swings during the span to put the Wildcats ahead. Siolos put the match away for Wilmington with a kill for the win.

Shorter led all attackers with eight kills, committing only one error on 15 swings for a match high .467 attack percentage. She also added two solo blocks for a total of 10 points. Fellow middle Biddle and freshman Kaitlin DiGiacinto added six kills each while Wiechecki and Brooke Foskey contributed five kills each.

Siolos and Couch helped spread out the offense, dishing out 188 and 11 assists, respectively. Annie Scarfo held the back row with a team high nine digs. Siolos, Scarfo, DiGiacinto, and Couch each tallied two aces on the afternoon.

The team hit .250 (40-13-108) on the match, compared to just .028 (23-20-106) for the Deacons.

Wilmington will put its five match win streak on the line on Friday, October 5, when they head to CACC South Division rival Holy Family. The Wildcats defeated the Tigers, 3-1, on September 5 to open the CACC schedule. The Wildcats have only lost three sets during their five-match win streak. The match against Holy Family is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.