ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Wesleyan volleyball team defeated Scranton in three sets on Friday night in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Tournament. The Cardinals, seeded No. 4 in the Rochester region hosted by RIT, won by set scores of 25-22, 25-14, 32-30.
 
Wesleyan, who was led by Maddie Kurke's '22 match and career-high 21 kills, is now 18-6 overall while improving to 5-0 all-time in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals have advanced to the regional semifinal for the fourth consecutive season and will play in the second round tomorrow against the host RIT Tigers (25-4) at 5:00 PM. The two sides already met once this season back on Friday, September 10 in Middletown in a match Wesleyan dominated to the tone of 25-12, 25-22, 25-19 on the way to a 3-0 home sweep.
 
Scranton, the Landmark Conference Champions and fifth seed in the region, were led by Trinity Manning's 11 kills. The Royals' season comes to an end with a record of 25-8.


 
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

• Wesleyan was up against it early in the first set, seeing Scranton rattle off a 5-0 run to start the match which grew as high as an 8-2 advantage for the Royals in the early going. Shaking off the early deficit, the Cardinals scored eight unanswered points, which later extended to a 11-1 run which resulted in Wesleyan leading 13-9. A late set Scranton run saw the Royals overcome what was a six-point Cardinal lead to take a 21-20 advantage, only to see Wesleyan score four straight to later win the first set 25-22.
• That late set run carried over into the second set as Wesleyan dominated both ends of the court, hitting .357 in the second set along while forcing the Royals into more errors (eight) than they had kills (seven). Wesleyan led by as any as 12 before ultimately closing out the set with a 25-14 win.
• A back-and-forth third set incredibly saw neither side lead by more than two points until the very late stages where the Royals went on a 3-0 run to hold a 24-21 lead. Needing some late set magic once again, Wesleyan staved off three consecutive set points as Kurke buried two straight kills and then Scranton attack error forced the third set into extra points. Wesleyan continued to answer back and held the Royals on five more set-point opportunities before a Kurke kill leveled the score at 30-30. Kurke then combined with Mariko Tanaka '24 for a block to make it 31-30 Cardinals and it was Tanaka with the match-sealing kill that won Wesleyan the third set at 32-30.

 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Kurke set a new program record for most kills in an NCAA Tournament match while also matching her career-high with 21 tonight. Kurke's 21 kills are the most for any Cardinal in a three-set match since Lisa Drennan '09 posted 23 kills in a 3-0 road win at Vassar back on September 13, 2008
• Kurke did her damage on just 33 attempts so not only was she the go-to option all evening long, but she was hyper-efficient, hitting a career-high .545 in the match
• 2021 NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year Jenna Otaola recorded a match-high 14 digs while Grace Bell '23 added eight and Bianca Ortiz '24 posted seven as the trio combined for 29 of the Cardinals' 53 total digs in the match
• Grace Dennis '23 was all over the court, recording 36 assists to go along with three blocks, seven digs and a career-high four kills for the junior setter
• Bella Ahearn '23 and Tanaka each tallied six kills while Tanaka added three blocks and five digs
• As a team, Wesleyan hit .306 for the match which is the highest mark for the Cardinals since going for a season-high .468 against Bates on October 2