Press Release Written by Nathan Foltz
NEWARK, Del. - - The Wilmington University women's volleyball team extended its winning streak to six matches on Tuesday night, defeating Jefferson, 3-1, in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference South Division matchup at the WU Athletics Complex.
Wilmington won the first two sets, 25-23 and 26-24, yielded the third match to Jefferson 19-25, then won the fourth 25-16.
The win boosts the Wildcats' record to 9-7 as they maintain their undefeated conference record at 6-0, while the loss knocks Jefferson down to 5-8 overall and 1-3 in the conference. It is the first time the Wildcats started the conference season 6-0 since they started 17-0 in 2012. They also went 5-0 in 2013.
Jefferson went up 5-0 to start the first set before Wilmington stormed back with an 8-1 run to take an 8-6 lead. The match was mostly back and forth from there, with the Wildcats slowly building a four-point lead at 24-20. The Rams provided a scare, scoring three straight on set points, but the Cats finished them off on a Karla Nunez-Rivera kill before things got any more out of hand.
The second set saw Wilmington take a 13-8 lead, but the Rams rattled off seven in a row to go up 15-13. The teams exchanged blows from there, leading to Jefferson setting up a set point at 24-22. Nunez-Rivera came up clutch again though, teaming up with Christine Covello twice to tie it at 24. Two straight Jefferson attack errors followed, putting the Wildcats up 2-0.
Wilmington got up 4-0 in the third set, but the Rams then rode a 14-4 run to a set victory. The Wildcats got within three at 18-15, but that's as close as they would pull before the Rams closed it out.
Set four started out similar to the third, with Wilmington jumping out to a 4-0 lead before once again letting the Rams go on a run, making it 10-5 with the Wildcats back in a hole. The Cats locked in after a timeout though, scoring on 20 of the set's final 26 rallies by taking advantage of a number of Jefferson attack errors, five of which came courtesy of Wilmington blocks.
Karla Nunez-Rivera led the way with 16 kills on the night with only four errors to hit .200. Eliza Schneider also had double-digit kills with 12. Addison Hoover led the team with 13 digs, and Morgan Daniels and Gabby Barth both had 11. Makailah Ford had the team's two solo blocks and added another eight block assists. Christine Covello and Cam Justus had the lion's share of the assists, tallying 25 and 13, respectively. Daniels (4), Hoover (3), and Justus (2) all had service aces.
Next up for the Wildcats is a break from conference play with a home match against Millersville on Thursday. That contest is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. at the WU Athletics Complex.