Volleyball drops match against St. Mary-of-the-Woods
The Wiley University volleyball team had three more players make their collegiate debuts, but it lost in three sets (25-14, 25-9, 25-15) against St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in its opening match of the Wiley University Showdown Friday at Alumni Gymnasium.
Lynnetra Taylor took over as setter in the third set and put up five assists and three digs. Morgan Sellers saw action in a set and Leah Monsegue led the team with six assists, adding four digs.
Shyla Starks and Rejinah Hickman led the Lady Wildcats with five kills each. Rachelle Santos followed with four kills. Hickman and Santos recorded service aces. T'aja Hardy led the team with nine digs with Maria Guinyard following with eight.
Wiley was outhit .273-(-).072 and 36-19 in kills. Six of its 26 attack errors were off St. Mary blocks. The Lady Wildcats struggled on serves as it allowed nine service aces.
In the first set, Wiley jumped out to a three-point lead but it allowed six kills, made three attacking and a set error - allowing St. Mary-of-the-Woods to take a six-point lead. A pair of kills by Hickman trimmed the deficit to three but the Pomeroys pushed their advantage to eight.
The Lady Wildcats (0-2, 0-1 HBCUAC) could not stop the Pomeroys' attack in the second set, allowing 10 kills on 27 attempts. Wiley only posted three kills while making 10 errors. It fell behind by six at the beginning of the third set. With Santos serving, the Lady Wildcats cut the margin to two on kills by Starks and Hardy. Once again, St. Mary-of-the-Woods hitting was too much to overcome as it put down 11 kills.
Wiley finished the first day of the tournament with a four-set exhibition loss (25-16, 26-28, 25-19, 25-20) to John Melvin University. Santos recorded a double-double with 17 kills and 12 digs. Jae Jemmott followed with seven kills and four solo blocks. Nadia Cortez notched 19 assists, seven digs and three service aces. Taylor posted 11 assists and five digs.
The Lady Wildcats will resume the Wiley University Showdown on Saturday against Paul Quinn College at noon and Louisiana Christian University at 4 p.m.
For more coverage on the Lady Wildcats visit https://wileyathletics.com/sports/wvball/index
About Wiley University Athletics
Wiley University sponsors 12 varsity sports, women's volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's indoor track and field, men's and women's outdoor track and field and baseball. It competes in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Athletic Conference (HBCUAC) and the Continental Athletic Conference for men's and women's soccer.
FOLLOW THE WILDCATS
Twitter: @WileyAthletics
Facebook: /WileyAthletics
Instagram: @wileyuniversityathletics
YouTube: /c/Wiley Wildcats
HBCU+: Wiley University
