Top-seeded Wheeling will take on second-seeded Urbana on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the McDonough Center on the campus of Wheeling University in the finals of the 2019 MEC Volleyball Tournament.
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Urbana 3, W.Va. State 1 (25-22, 25-14, 11-25, 25-15) | Final Stats
Courtesy Urbana Sports Information
WHEELING, W.Va. -- Urbana made its way to its first MEC Tournament final with a 3-1 win over West Virginia State on Friday night.
UU (19-12) defeated West Virginia State (21-14) for the second time this season by final scores of 25-22, 25-14, 11-25, and 25-15.
Serving proved to be a huge factor in Friday night's historic win, which was only the second MEC semifinals appearance for Urbana. The Blue Knights totaled 11 aces with five players recording at least two while the Yellow Jackets had just three aces.
In the opening set, Urbana trailed by as much as six with West Virginia State in front 15-9 following a service error. Then, Courtney Niesen recorded back-to-back aces to get momentum going for Urbana and an ace by Anna Davis tied the score 20-20. The strong serves continued as another ace by Hannah Delor put UU in front for good to claim the opening set.
Delor, who led with 17 kills, recorded six of those in the first set. In addition, the Blue Knights produced five of their 11 aces in the opening frame.
In the second set, Urbana jumped out to a 7-3 lead but West Virginia State climbed back to make it a two-point game following a Gabrielle Bullock kill to make it 9-7. Then, the Blue Knights caught fire with an 11-3 run and cruised to a 2-0 match lead as five different players recorded a kill. The run was capped by, you guessed it, another ace this time by Jenna Franks, who finished with three on the night.
West Virginia State, who is known for its high flyers at the net, finally got rolling in the third set and pulled out a deflating 25-11 win to cut Urbana's match lead to one, 2-1.
The Blue Knights stuck together though and quickly erased the third set from their minds by storming out to a 10-2 lead in the fourth. After riding out another Yellow Jackets' comeback attempt, Urbana continued its strong play in the final set by building a 20-12 advantage and held on for the clincher.
Delor led with a double-double on 17 kills and 14 digs while Maggie Burns also reached double figures with 11 kills. Lexi Reinert (8), Kaitlin Trace (7) and Natalie Perez (5) contributed on the attack while combining for nine block assists. Anna Davis had 38 assists and Courtney Niesen gathered a team-high 24 digs. Franks posted 10 digs along with her three aces.
WVSU's Jenna Dufresne led the Yellow Jackets with 13 kills.
Both teams hit .164 in overall hitting percentage with Urbana posting over .230 in three of the four sets.
Wheeling 3, Davis & Elkins 0 | Final Stats
WHEELING, W.Va. -- Wheeling advanced to the finals for a seventh-straight year with a 3-0 win over Davis & Elkins on Friday night. The Cardinals earned the straight-set win by scores of 25-15, 25-16 and 25-20.
The Cardinals hit .313 in the match and hit home 50 kills. Breanna Kramer led the way with 14 kills against just three errors on 34 attacks, and also came up with eight digs. Cassie Meyer (12) and Haley Kramer (10) also had double-digit kills.
Stephanie Sylvester had 48 assists on Wheeling's 50 kills. Audrey Francis had match-high 14 digs.
Luanne O'Kane led D&E with 11 kills, and the Wheeling defense helped limit Kaitlyn LaCour to just 10 kills. Sarah Warren had 31 assists to go with 11 digs.