NEWARK, Del. - - Senior Rebecca Rawlinson led the Wilmington University volleyball team to a sweep of Dominican on Saturday at the WU Athletics Complex in a Central Athletic Collegiate Conference cross-divisional contest.
Set scores for the match were25-14, 25-13, and 27-25.
The senior put down a match high eight kills while also adding seven blocks on the day, four of which came as the solo variety. Rawlinson also only committed two errors on the attack, finishing the day with a .500 attack percentage.
The Wildcats (16-11, 8-5 CACC) started the game with a 10-3 run in the first set. The Chargers (0-19, 0-13 CACC) battled back to 12-9, but an 8-1 Wilmington run put the home team back in control. Rawlinson ended the first set, 25-14, with a kill.
Another 8-1 spurt in the second half gave the Wildcats a 15-5 lead and the Wildcats were able to keep the Chargers at an arm's reach the rest of the way. The Wildcats scored the final two points of the game with a kill from Mandy Behiels and a service ace by Rianne Nickerson to win, 25-13.
The third set proved to be more difficult for the Wildcats, as the Chargers came out and scored six of the first seven points. Dominican continued to lead 13-5 and as large as 16-9 in the third set. Three straight Wilmington points got the home to team to within 19-16, but was still down 21-18 before making a run. Rawlinson put down back-to-back kills before a Mandy Behiels aces tied the set at 21. The Chargers went back ahead, 23-21, to force a timeout, and the Wildcats tied things up once more at 23. A Chargers' ace gave the visitors set point, 25-24, but Emma Kongevold started a 3-0 match ending run for the home team with a kill. A bad set and then a Sarah Couch ace ended the match, 27-25.
After Rawlinson's eight kills, Emma Kongevold added six without an error and a .400 attack percentage while Behiels finished with five kills. Sarah Couch dished out 29 assists while Behiels led the back row with 13 digs. Elly Collins added 10 digs in the win. Angel Oliver chipped in at the net with two solo and four block assists.
The Wildcats are back in action on Wednesday when they head to USciences for a CACC South Division battle. The Wildcats and Devils are set to begin at 7:00 p.m. in Philadelphia.