WHEELING, W.Va. – For the first time in program history, Notre Dame College won a set against No. 20 Wheeling University. Although the Falcons had momentum after the first set, Wheeling worked their way back to a 3-1 match victory, on Thursday night.
In the first set, not only did the Falcons win by two, but they never trailed. Wheeling was 3-0 in conference play coming into this game and they had only lost one set to an MEC team, all season.
NDC took advantage of mistakes by Wheeling, as three of their first six points came from the Cardinals' errors. The offense certainly did their job, as well. The Falcons stretched their lead to five points, 20-15, on a kill by sophomore
Katie Richardson. That forced Wheeling to call a timeout, and then NDC held off a late push by the home team to win, 25-23. Notre Dame committed just two attack errors and recorded a .486 hit percentage.
Wheeling's defense did a very nice job of shutting down the Falcons' offense in the second set and won, 25-10.
The third set was another battle between the two teams. Throughout the first half of the set, NDC held the lead. And, just like the first set, Notre Dame put together a long run. A 7-1 run, that included five kills and an ace, gave the Falcons an 11-5 lead. Wheeling bounced back with an 8-1 run of their own to take their first lead, 13-12. After that point in the game, the teams went back and forth with two lead changes and five ties. Ultimately, the home team closed the deal and won 25-23.
"Even though we didn't pull out a win, that first set win and only losing by two in the third shows our team that we can compete with anyone," said head coach
Travis Hinkle. "We learned a lot about ourselves today and know that if we can continue to grow, we will be turning a lot of heads."
Wheeling closed out the match, winning 25-11 in the fourth set.
Freshman
Kaye Dregalla led the team with 16 kills and a hit percentage of .293 while senior
Mary Kate McHugh put down 12 kills. Senior
Paige Staudacher recorded 44 assists. Defensively, senior
Alexandra Kaeberlein had 22 of the Falcons' 52 digs on the night.
Wheeling had three players reach double-digit kills with Haley Kramer on top with 18. Kramer had a hit percentage of .552 and Abby Strait finished with 17 kills and .536. Stephanie Sylvester added 50 assists. Audrey Francis (24) and Breanna Kramer (20) each had over 20 digs on the night.
The Falcons will stay in the area and play West Liberty University, tomorrow. The match is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
