ORANGEBURG, N.Y. - - The Wilmington University volleyball team needed to come back from a 2-1 deficit, but did just that to surpass Dominican, 3-2, fighting in extra points in the fifth set to win the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference cross divisional contest on Saturday afternoon inside the Hennessy Center.
Set scores for the Wildcats were 24-26, 25-22, 17-25, 25-14, and 18-16.
The win keeps the Wildcats in a tight race for second place in the CACC South Division, still just a half game behind Chestnut Hill and a half game ahead of Holy Family in third.
Trailing 2-1, the Wildcats (14-12, 8-5 CACC) came out with their best set of the contest in the fourth, putting down 11 kills with only two errors to his .391. They used an 8-0 run in the middle of the set to take a large lead, going on to win bug, 25-14, and force a game five.
It was Dominican that started fast in the fifth set though, as the Chargers (8-17, 6-6 CACC) used a 5-1 spurt to take a 6-3 lead. They switched sides of the court with an 8-5 lead. But that is when the Wildcats made their comeback.
Cailyn Smiley started a 6-1 run for the Wildcats with a kill, tying the game, 8-8, with an ace. Dominican regained a brief lead, 9-8, but then a service error, a Shannen Litten kill, and a WilmU block gave the Wildcats an 11-9 lead. A kill from Brice Hansen and a Charger error gave the Wildcats match point, 14-12, but the home team fought back with kills to tie the game, 14-14, and force extra points.
The Wildcats had two more match points, but the Chargers had an answer for each, as the game was tied, 16-16. Cailyn Smiley put down a kill and then a bad set into the pin ended the match, as the Wildcats picked up the key CACC victory, 18-16.
Brice Hansen led the Wildcats with 12 kills while adding 27 digs. Cailyn Smiley was the only other Wildcat to reach double digit kills, putting down 10 while adding 17 digs. Shannen Litten added nine kills while leading the effort at the net with four block assists. Karalyn Osborne finished with eight kills and three block assists as well.
Katie Bushong dished out 39 assists while adding nine digs and three block assists. Elly Collins had 27 digs and three aced while Claudia Melendez racked up five aces with 11 digs.
The Wildcats will take their four-match winning streak into next week, when they make the short trip to Goldey-Beacom on Thursday night. The first serve is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Joseph West Jones Center.