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NEWARK, Del. - - Down a set and facing two set points in the second set, the Wilmington University volleyball team battled back to take a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament First Round match over Dominican, 3-1, on Tuesday night inside the WU Athletics Complex.
Set scores for the match were 20-25, 26-24, 25-15, and 25-23.
With the win, the Wildcats advance to the CACC Tournament Semifinal for the third time in five years. They will play the North Division's No. 2 seed Bridgeport in the second Semifinal on Saturday after the Purple Knights defeated Goldey-Beacom, 3-0, in their First Round matchup on Tuesday night. Goldey-Beacom will host the Semifinal and Championship matches.
The match turned at the end of the second set, and the Wildcats took full advantage. With the Wildcats leading 20-19, the Chargers scored four straight and took a 23-20 lead. The Wildcats got kills form Karla Nunez-Rivera and Addison Hoover to close the gap to 23-22, but a service error gave the Chargers set point, 24-22, looking to go up 2-0. Makailah Ford kept the Wildcats alive with a kill and then a rotation error tied the set, 24-24. An error gave the Wildcats set point and then a block by Ford gave the Wildcats game two, 26-24, to even the match 1-1.
The Wildcats then took the momentum into the third set, using an 8-1 run to take an 11-5 lead. Another 8-2 spurt put the Wildcats up 19-9 and then another 4-1 run to take a 23-11 advantage. Karla Nunez-Rivera gave the Wildcats set point, 24-13, and then a service into the net gave the Wildcats the third set, 25-15.
Trailing 8-7 in the fourth set, the Wildcats scored three straight and then used another 4-1 run to take a 16-12 lead with a kill from Eliza Schneider. The Chargers tried to get back into the game, scoring two points at a time to close the gap all the way to 22-21. The Chargers had a service error to give the point over to Wilmington for the 23-21 lead. The teams traded points the rest of the way, with Schneider putting down a kill to end the match, 25-23.
Eliza Schneider paced the Wildcats with 15 kills and only one error, hitting .519 for the match. Karla Nunez-Rivera had 17 kills with seven digs, and four total blocks. Addison Hoover added 10 kills and a match high 19 digs. Chelsea Blaine-Agett had seven kills with three aces, and three total blocks. Cam Justus dished out 24 assists while Makailah Ford finished with four total blocks.
The Wildcats and Purple Knights will be the second Semifinal on Saturday at Goldey-Beacom, with an approximate start time of 2:30 p.m. Post and Holy Family will be the first semifinal on Saturday, starting at 12:00 p.m. in the Joseph West Jones Center at Goldey-Beacom.
