CALIFORNIA, Pa. - The Gannon volleyball team’s first trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament since 1995 did not turn out the way it envisioned. Wheeling Jesuit hit .224 and swept the Lady Knights by scores of 25-18, 25-23 and 25-18.
The loss ended Gannon’s season at 22-10, representing the program’s most victories since the 1995 squad went 25-7. Thursday’s NCAA Tournament appearance was the Lady Knights’ first since that same 1995 season.
Wheeling Jesuit snapped a 2-2 tie in the first set with a mini 4-0 run. The Cardinals maintained the lead throughout the remainder of the stanza. Leading 19-15, WJU captured the first victory by scoring six of the final nine points. Catie Halberstadt’s kill from Kristen DuBroy capped the 25-18 first-set victory. The Lady Knights hit just .034, recording seven kills and six errors in 29 attacks.
Gannon seemed to gain confidence and momentum in the second set, opening the rally with a 12-5 advantage. The freshmen duo of
Morgan Reineke (New Knoxville, Ohio/New Knoxville) and
Lauren Sazama (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) ignited a 9-2 run with an ace and a kill.
Wheeling Jesuit then called what might have been the best time-out of the evening. The Cardinals immediately responded with an 8-1 blitz out of the time-out to tie the contest at 13. A Sazama ace and Wheeling attack error briefly gave the Lady Knights the lead back at 15-13, before the Cardinals rallied back to tie the set at 20. Trailing 20-19, the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) club rolled off four straight points and eventually secured a 25-23 victory.
Head coach Matt Darling’s squad struggled with a .083 hitting percentage during the final set, resulting in a 25-18 loss. Wheeling Jesuit used an 11-4 run to open a 17-10 lead and never looked back in the three-game sweep.
Kara Cullen (Marstons Mills, Mass./Barnstable) and Reineke led the Gannon offensive attack with nine kills each. They were two of only three Lady Knights with positive attack percentages, hitting .308 and .240 respectively.
Maire Prybyl (Mars, Pa./North Catholic) recorded her eighth double-double during her final collegiate match. The senior dished out 25 assists while recording 10 digs. She concluded her career with four consecutive double-doubles. while finishing third all-time at Gannon in career assists (3,265) and fifth in career aces (175).
Gannon loses two seniors (Prybyl and
Kadie Zimmerman) from this season’s record-setting squad. Wheeling Jesuit improved to 36-5 with its 26th consecutive victory. As a result, the Cardinals moved into the second round of the NCAA Division II Tournament against the California (Pa.)-Chowan winner.
For a complete box score from Thursday’s Gannon-Wheeling Jesuit NCAA Division II Volleyball Tournament match, please
click here.