NEWARK, Del. - - The Wilmington University volleyball team bookended the first day of the Wildcat Invitational with a pair of 3-0 victories over Pace and Saint Rose on Friday night, highlighting the 10-team tournament hosted by the Wildcat in the new WU Athletics Complex on Friday.
The Wildcats moved to 6-2 overall on the 2012 season, defeating Pace in the tournament's first match of the day and capping it with another straight set victory over Saint Rose in the final match of the day, making it a 2-0 afternoon against the Northeast-10 Conference.
Set scores for the match against Pace were 25-21, 25-20, and 29-27.
Set scores for the match against Saint Rose were 25-22, 25-22, and 25-23.
The defensive was the story for the Wildcats on day one, holding Pace to a .074 attack percentage and Saint Rose to a .100 hitting percentage for each match.
Against Pace, the front line was huge, denying 12 attacks, more than half of which came off the hands of junior Katie Shorter. The middle hitter denied seven solo blocks and added three block assists on the match. She also collected six kills for a match high 14.5 points in the victory.
Freshman Kaitlin DiGiacinto added in on the blocks with one solo and one block assist while classmate Alex Siolos added two block assists.
On the back line against Pace, senior Nicole Wiechecki kept 19 balls from reaching the gym floor, a match high. DiGiacinto was the only other Wildcat in double figures with 11 digs.
Offensively, it was outside hitters Wiechecki and DiGiacinto leading the way with 10 kills each. Siolos added nine kills while quarterbacking the offense with a team high 20 assists. Kasey Couch added 16 assists to the match with five digs.
Overall, the team collected 42 kills on 116 swings, leveling out at a .216 attack percentage for the match.
The defense came up large once again for the Wildcat in the second match of the day, as four players reached double digits in digs and the team out blocked the Golden Knights, 9-6.
Once again Couch led the way on the backline with 12 kills, while Wiechecki, DiGiacinto and Siolos each picked up 10 digs. The second match's blocking duties went to Brittany Biddle, as she denied two solo blocks and aided in four block assists. She also added six kills to finish with a match high 10 points.
Siolos and Couch spread the offense around against Saint Rose, as Siolos found 17 attacks on the match and Couch chipped in with 12 assists. Leading the way offensively was DiGiacinto with nine kills, followed by Wiechecki with seven, Biddle and Brooke Foskey with six, and Siolos with five.
The Wildcats finished the second match with only a .169 attack percentage, but helped itself with five service aces and a 60 percent side-out percentage (42-for-69). Siolos picked up two aces while Couch, Wiechecki and DiGiacinto added one apiece.
The Wildcat Invitational continues Saturday with 10 more games played at the WU Athletics Complex starting at 9:30 a.m. The Wildcats square off against Bentley at 11 a.m. and finish off the tournament with a match against Davis & Elkins at 3:30 p.m.
