WALTHAM, Mass. - - The Wilmington University volleyball team rounded out the Bentley Invitational on Saturday, coming back to defeat Queens (N.Y.), 3-1, but couldn't finish off Stonehill in the final match, falling 3-2 on Saturday afternoon to finish the tournament 1-2 overall.
Set scores for the Wildcats against Queens were 9-25, 25-19, 25-20 and 25-20.
Set scores against Stonehill were 25-21, 20-25, 25-19, 18-25, and 15-17.
Wilmington (10-4 overall) bounced back from hitting negative .107 (7 kills, 10 errors, 28 attempts) in the first set against Queens to hitting a match best .233 (12-5-30) by the fourth set to win the final three games and take the first match of the day. The Wildcats also held Queens to a .037 attack percentage for the match.
Freshman Kaitlin DiGiacinto paced the offense with 12 kills, finishing as the only Wildcat in double digits. Nicole Wiechecki added seven kills followed by Katie Shorter with six. DiGiacinto and Wiechecki had five of the team's seven aces for the match.
Freshman Alex Siolos dished out 17 assists while sophomore Kasey Couch added 13 helpers. Defensively, three players reached double figures in digs, led by Wiechecki with 13. Freshman Shelby Henderson added 11 off the bench for the Wildcats while Couch collected 10 digs.
At the net, Shorter recorded three total blocks, getting a hand on four block assists and denying an attack by herself once. Wiechecki helped on the front line as well, adding three block assists while Brittany Biddle added two assists as well.
The Wildcats offensive attack was much more efficient in the second match of the day against Stonehill, hitting .263 (54-14-152) for the match, but couldn't put them away even after leading two sets to one. Wilmington only committed one error in the first set, taking the game 25-21. They again hit over .300 in the third set (13-3-27), but had its worst team percentage in the fifth and deciding set (.167).
DiGiacinto led the wildcat offense once again, collecting 15 more terminations on 37 attempts with only three errors for a .324 hitting rate. Wiechecki also had double figure kills, 12, and hit .303 (12-2-33) for the match. Biddle added eight kills with a .368 hitting percentage while Shorter put down seven kills with a .400 average.
Couch ran the offense and finished with 25 assists while Siolos chipped in with 14 more helpers. DiGiacinto led the team once again with 17 digs, while Couch (14) and Wiechecki (13) added defensive double digits.
Biddle led the blocking effort against Stonehill, knocking two solos and adding three block assists for a total of 3.5 blocks. Shorter picked up three more solo blocks, adding to her Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference lead of 29 solo and 67 total blocks.
DiGiacinto and Shorter were named to the Bentley Invitational All-Tournament team for their efforts in the three matches. DiGiacinto led the Wildcats with 34 kills (2.83 per set) and second on the team with 31 digs. Shorter tallied 19 kills and hit a team high .293 for the tournament. She also led the team with five solo, seven block assists for 10 total (0.83 per set). Joining DiGiacinto and Shorter on the All-Tournament Team was Stonehill's Kirsten Arvidson (Co-MVP), California (Pa.)'s Brandy Harris (Co-MVP) and Kelly Fromknecht, Georgian Court's Gabriela Berrios, Queens' Suzanne Byrne, and Bentley's Grave Conner.
The Wildcats remain on the road for one more match, as they return to CACC action on Wednesday with a contest at Georgian Court. The Lions are 1-1 in the CACC while the Wildcats will look to move to 3-0 in the conference. The match is slated to begin at 7 p.m.