NEWARK, Del. - - The Wilmington University volleyball team dropped a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference South Division battle to Holy Family, 3-1, on Thursday night inside the WU Athletics Complex.
Set scores for the match were 25-21, 30-32, 14-25, and 23-25.
After closing out the opening set with a strong run, the Wildcats (11-17, 6-7 CACC) couldn't find a way to close out the second and fourth sets, falling to the Tigers (9-16, 6-7 CACC) to split the season series for the third year in a row.
Trailing 15-10 in the first set, the Wildcats stormed back with a 9-2 run to turn the game around. The Tigers rallied with three straight points to take a 20-19 lead but then the Wildcats scored the next four points to force the Tigers into a timeout. Haley Holland gave the Wildcats set point with an ace and then a Tiger service error gave the Wildcats the game, 25-21.
A 10-3 spurt brought the Wildcats back to tie the game, 15-15, and then another 3-0 run gave the Wildcats a 21-20 lead in the second set. The teams traded the next six points, with Alex Serna giving the Wildcats set point, 24-23. But the Tigers had an answer for all four of the Wildcats et points, as the teams continued to trade points back and forth. The Tigers turned the tide with back-to-back points to take a 28-27 lead, but then the Wildcats were the ones to save set points, staving off three of them with kills from Karalyn Osborne, Karla Nunez-Rivera, and Alex Serna. The Tigers were able to finish off the set though, getting back-to-back kills from Shelby Kinzer to end the marathon set, 32-30.
Wilmington trailed the third set, 11-10, before the Tigers used a 12-0 run to turn the game on its head, 23-10. The Wildcats held off three set points before Kinzer gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead, 25-14.
A block by Kaiya Medina and Karla Nunez-Rivera and then a kill from Karla Nunez-Rivera put the Wildcats ahead, 19-14, in the fourth set, and kills from Nunez-Rivera and Alex Serna put the Wildcats up, 21-16. But then the Tigers rattled off four straight to close the gap to 21-20. Eliza Schneider gave the Wildcats a 23-21 lead with a kill, but Holy Family ran out the contest, scoring the final four points to steal the set, 25-23, and the match, 3-1.
Eliza Schneider led the Wildcats with 18 kills while adding eight dicks and a block. Karla Nunez-Rivera put down 17 kills while hitting .311. Alex Serna added 9 kills with three blocks as well. Karalyn Osborne dished out 24 assists to go with 13 digs and three aces. Gabby Barth picked up 19 digs while Cam Justus dished out 13 assists with 10 digs as well.
The Wildcats take to the road for their next two contests, starting with a trip to Bridgeport on Saturday. The first serve is set for 2:00 p.m. against the Purple Knights.