RUTHERFORD, N.J. - - The South Division No. 4 seed Wilmington University volleyball team fell in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament Quarterfinal to Felician, 3-1, on Tuesday night inside Job Gym.
Set scores for the match were 18-25, 25-17, 14-25, and 12-25.
With the win, the North Division's top seed Felician moves on to the CACC Tournament Semifinals hosted by Holy Family in Philadelphia this weekend. The loss knocks the Wildcats out of the playoffs and ends their season with a 20-14 overall record.
The Wildcats tied the match with a convincing win in the second set, 25-17, but the Golden Falcons responded on their home court by winning the final two sets, 25-14 and 25-12, to win the match, 3-2. It was Felician's first ever postseason victory in program history.
The upstart Golden Falcons jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the opening set and had a double-digit lead at 16-6. The Wildcats cut the deficit in half, 21-16, and got as close to 22-18 before Felician scored the final three points of the set to take the lead.
It was the Wildcats that got out to a fast start in the second set, using a 6-0 run to go up 12-5. Another 7-2 run put the Wildcats up 23-14 before Bailey Andrews gave the visitors set point with a kill, 24-16. Angel Oliver finished off the set with a kill of her own, 25-17.
Felician put their stamp on the third set early on, raising out to an 8-2 lead. They grabbed a 10-point lead in the midst of a 4-0 run, moving up 19-8. The teams traded points until 23-14, when the Golden Falcons closed out the third set with back-to-back points, 25-14.
With the fourth set at 7-6, the Golden Falcons scored four straight in route to a 7-2 run to move up 14-8. After back-to-back points by the Wildcats, Felician scored seven consecutive points to lead 21-10. The Wildcats could only get two points back before Felician closed out the victory with three straight points, 25-12.
Senior Rebecca Rawlinson led the Wildcats with 12 kills on 25 swings, all while only committing two errors for a .400 attack percentage. She also added four block assists on the night, finishing her career second in program history with 148 solo blocks, fourth all-time with 297 block assists, and second all-time with 445 total blocks.
Bailey Andrews had nine kills while Angel Oliver added seven kills to go with eight blocks, seven of which came as block assists. Mandy Behiels also had seven kills to go with eight digs. Senior Emma Kongevold put down three kills while adding four block assists as well.
Sarah Couch dished out 31 assists while adding nine digs and freshman Elly Collins led the team with 20 digs.
It is the eighth time the Wildcats have won 20 matches in a season in the NCAA era, but the first time since the 2015 season.