WILMINGTON, Ohio - The Wilmington College volleyball team earned leads late in sets against both The University of Mount Union and Mount St. Joseph University (MSJ), but the Fightin' Quakers were unable to close the majority of their leads in a pair of defeats at Hermann Court on Saturday. The Purple Raiders won the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) match 25-21, 25-13, 25-14 and the Lions took the final match of the day 25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 25-19. In the neutral-site contest, Mount Union avenged an earlier season loss as the hands of MSJ with an 18-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-19, 15-12 triumph.
In the loss to the Purple Raiders, the Fightin' Quakers clawed out of a four-point deficit at three occasions (4-0, 6-2 and 10-6) to take a 21-15 lead on a lengthy service run from Sydney Geibel. During said service run, Wilmington forced Mount Union into three attack errors and put down two kills (from Sofia Thomas and Bailey Pohlman). Unfortunately for the hosts, the visitors rattled off 10 straight points off the serve of Mollie Thomas.
In a game that often features momentum swings, Mount Union kept the momentum for the rest of the match. The Purple Raiders won the first six points of the second sets and took a 9-4 lead early in the third set to finish the match in straight sets.
Mount Union hit a .245 clip for the match with to go along with seven blocks. Conversely, Wilmington had 24 kills and 20 errors with five blocks as a team.
Darby Leininger and Maria Ellesin had 12 and 11 kills respectively with setter Mollie Thomas assisting on 25 kills. Libero Alyssa Kasaris had 20 digs in the victory.
Pohlman hit a .417 clip with six kills to lead the Quaker offense. The Russia High School alumna also had three blocks. Setter Andie Dolven dished out 18 assists while libero Blake O'Brien had 17 digs.
In the loss to the Lions, Wilmington held leads of 22-18 in set one and 22-17 in set three, but were unable to close out either set. The Quakers did win set three behind a 16-kill performance in the game, but MSJ won set four to close out the match.
Both teams hit under a .100 clip for the match with the Lions being led by a trio – Grace Young, Brooke Aselage and Addie Conley – who all had double digits in kills. Sam Buschur and Chloe Burton combined for 38 assists while Young and Morgan Whitaker both had five block assists.
Geibel, in her final match at Fred Raizk Arena, had a dozen kills while Joy Bebe and Thomas both had nine. Dolven assisted on 39 kills while O'Brien turned in a 29-dig performance.
Wilmington will close its 2022 regular season with road match at Muskingum University and Heidelberg University on Wednesday and Saturday respectively.
