2013 Season Photo Gallery
Archived Seasons Photo Gallery

Wilkes-Barre, PA (November 6, 2013) – The DeSales University volleyball team put on a clinic Wednesday evening, a clinic on overcoming adversity and finding a way to win, exacting revenge of an earlier season loss to Wilkes University with a gutsy 3-1 (25-21, 26-24, 23-25, 25-15) four-set win in the Freedom Conference semifinals at the Marts Center.

The Bulldogs (19-14) advance to their third straight Freedom Conference championship match and its sixth appearance in the last seven years as DSU will travel to Eastern University with the match start time set at 3:00 pm.

DeSales had to overcome being without three of its top four hitters for all or portion of the match on Wednesday evening as freshman Lauren Hess was scratched just before the match with an injury, senior Emilie Baker was lost for the end of the third set with a brief leg injury, and freshman Arielle Nicholson left the match for the end of the fourth set with a head injury.

But there was nothing wrong with the hearts of any of the players wearing a Bulldog uniform on Wednesday night.

The match was back and forth the entire night.  In the first set the score was tied at 20 when kills by junior Chrissy Banos, senior Macy Farrell, and senior Madeline Svrcek led a 5-1 run to give DSU the first set, 25-21.

In the second set the score was tied at 22 when a kill from Nicholson and Baker gave DSU a 24-22 lead, but the Colonels tied it at 24 with two straight points.  An attack error from senior Casey Bohan gave DSU set point again and this time Banos put down a kill for a 26-24 win.

The third set was also tight, tied at 21 when DSU scored two straight on kills by Svrcek and Banos, but consecutive errors from the Bulldogs and two straight kills from Wilkes gave WU a 25-23.

The fourth set saw DSU leading 12-11 when the Bulldogs took control winning 10 of the next 11 points to lead 22-12 and the Bulldogs cruised from there with a 25-15 fourth set win and a 3-1 match win.

Nicholson led the way before leaving the match with 14 kills and four blocks, hitting .360 for the match.  Svrcek was outstanding with 12 kills and a .370 hitting percentage to go along with 21 digs.  Baker added 12 kills and five blocks and Banos was incredible with nine kills, a .500 hitting percentage and six blocks.

Freshman Lisa Wallitsch was outstanding running the offense with 44 assists and nine digs, junior Amanda Wallitsch totaled 18 digs, and graduate student Justine McNulty was excellent with 16 digs and two aces.  Farrell added seven kills and three blocks in the win.