NEWARK, Del. - - The Wilmington University volleyball team capped the Wildcat Regional Invitational with a sweep over Le Moyne on Saturday, after beginning day two of the tournament with a three-set loss to NYIT, going 3-1 over the weekend at the WU Athletics Complex.
Set scores against NYIT were 18-25, 24-26, and 17-25.
Set scores against Le Moyne were 25-16, 25-15, and 27-25.
On its way to a perfect 4-0 weekend, NYIT came out and took all three sets from the Wildcats, having a better attack percentage in each progressing set.
The Wildcats held set point at 24-22 after a kill by Tia Williams, but the Bears were able to stave off two game points to tie the match, and then took two more points to steal the set from the Wildcats, 26-24. The Bears followed up with a third set in which they hit .425 with 20 kills and only three errors to take the set, and the match, 25-17.
After going 2-0 on Friday on the first day of the tournament, the Wildcats were once again in position to even their regular season record with a win in the final match of the tournament against Le Moyne.
And the Wildcats found their redemption.
Wilmington came out of the gates and hit .242 in the first set and backed it up by hitting .357 in the second set to quickly go up 2-0 against Le Moyne.
The Dolphins wouldn't go down easily however, as they battled back to take a 17-15 lead in the third set after scoring eight of eleven points. After going back and forth, an attack error by the Dolphins gave the Wildcats a 23-22 lead, but Le Moyne received back-to-back kills by Madison Snow to sit on set point.
After a timeout, the Wildcats battled back with a kill by Katie Shorter, and again took a one-point lead on a Dolphin hitting error. Snow tied the game at 25 with a kill, but the Wildcats responded with a kill by Alex Siolos, and then Siolos finished it off with a service ace on match point for the sweep.
Seven different Wildcats picked up kills against Le Moyne, led by Brittany Biddle and Kaitlin DiGiacinto with eight each. Siolos set the offense with 16 assists while Shelby Henderson and Annie Scarfo paced the back row with 10 digs each.
Siolos and freshman Allison Briley were voted to the 2013 Wildcat Regional Invitational All-Tournament Team, as picked by the six teams' head coaches.
Briley led the Wildcats with 34 kills in the four matches, hitting .175 for the tournament. The freshman also recorded 30 digs, three blocks and two aces.
Siolos paced the offense with 74 assists, averaging 5.29 per set. The sophomore also had 1.57 kills per set, and 2.57 digs per set. She also helped at the net with seven block assists for the tournament. She had a weekend high 12 digs and 26 assists against Adelphi.
After going 4-2 on their six game home stands, the Wildcats return to the road and to Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference action this week, as they head to USciences on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. match. The Wildcats return home on Saturday to square off against Felician for Homecoming starting at 11 a.m.
AGATE:
2013 Wildcat Regional Invitational All-Tournament Team
NYIT (4-0): #3 Katarina Sretenovic, #4 Shelby Cable, #8 Marija Jovanovic
WU (3-1): #25 Allison Briley, #27 Alex Siolos
Adelphi (2-2): #10 Kaitlyn DeStefano
Holy Family (1-3): #8 Chelsea Keegan
Millersville (1-3): #13 Brooke Smith
LeMoyne (1-3): #2 Megan Maisonet