Video Recap at the Bottom of the Page
Press Release written by Sports Information Graduate Intern MaryKate Rumbaugh
NEWARK, Del. – Finding themselves down 2-1, the Wilmington University volleyball team managed to come from behind to beat Nyack, 3-2, to start Saturday's Homecoming activities off at the WU Athletic Complex.
Set scores for the match were 25-13, 23-25, 25-27, 25-19, and 15-13.
The Wildcats started off strong in the first set, as they started drifting away from the Warriors, 14-11, before Nyack called a timeout. WilmU came out of the timeout, going on an additional 4-0 run to increase their lead to 18-11. The Wildcats took advantage of the Warriors' 15 errors to win the first set, 25-13.
Wilmington went on a 6-0 run to start the second set, and lead the Warriors 17-9, before Nyack starting chipping away to decrease the Wildcats lead to 17-13. Nyack was able to rally with four unanswered points, including three back-to-back kills from Krya Zuhlke to come within two points of the Wildcats. It was all tied up, 23-23, before Nyack took the 25-23 victory following two WilmU errors.
It was another back-and-forth third set, until the Wildcats found themselves down 22-18. Wilmington was able to score five unanswered points to take a 23-22 lead, before Nyack answered with a kill. The Wildcats were able to fight off two set points, before the Warriors took the 27-25 win.
With 11 kills, WilmU was able to fight their way back to win the fourth set, 25-19, to force a set five.
With their momentum from the fourth set, Wilmington took a 9-2 lead in fifth set, but the Warriors were able to fight off five match points, before Mandy Behiels ended it with a kill off the block, as the Wildcats won, 15-13.
Mandy Behiels had a season-high 21 kills, while also posting 17 digs. Rebecca Rawlinson had 11 kills and four block assists, while Angel Oliver added 10 kills. Jill Braunsberg collected her 11th double-double of the season with 26 assists and 16 digs.
Jenna Brown tied the Wildcats' single-match record by collecting 41 digs on the day. She tied Brittany O'Neill's mark set back on September 30, 2008 against USciences.
Wilmington out-hit the Warriors, 64-49 and out-blocked them, 10-3.
Up next, the Wildcats will host Holy Family in a close CACC matchup Wednesday night with a 7:00 p.m. start time at the Complex.
