WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Catholic volleyball team hosted Wilkes and Salisbury in its final home tri-match of the season on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals split the two matches on the day, advancing to 2-0 in Landmark play with a 3-0 win over the Colonels.

Match One - Catholic 3, Wilkes 0 (25-12, 25-18, 25-20)

The Cardinals led the day off with a dominant first set against the Colonels, taking it 25-12. Catholic was on fire offensively in the set with 15 kills while hitting a match-high .464 to win the set by 13. A 6-1 run early in the frame gave the Cardinals a 10-4 lead as they led from 3-2 on. During this run, Alani Rivera Diaz, Julia Raab and Erin Faughnan picked up two kills and Faughnan also added back-to-back aces. Juliette Cummings notched four kills on four swings to lead Catholic in the set.

Catholic once again stormed ahead early in the second set, starting with a 10-3 run where Anna Maria Carella recorded two aces and Rivera Diaz, Raab and Faughnan tallied kills again. Another 6-1 run came later in the set to set up a set point for the Cardinals and Faughnan delivered another kill to close out the frame, 25-18.

The Cardinals closed out back-to-back sweeps in conference play with a 25-20 victory in the decisive third set. Once again, Catholic gained the lead early with a 10-3 run that was finished by a kill from Vivian O'Brien and an ace from Kate Berra. Wilkes rallied late to pull within one at 21-20, but Catholic answered by taking the last four volleys where Cummings and Raab added kills to help finish the Colonels.

Cummings added off her career game on Friday with another career-high and match-leading 13 kills to lead the Cardinals while also hitting .750 on 15 attempts. Faughnan finished behind her with 11 and Raab totaled nine. Carella tallied a season-high 22 assists and Berra also had 14.

Alejandra Garcia was the digs leader for the Cardinals with 17 and Julia Turchiano led the team in blocks with three.

Catholic hit .371 in the match, its highest hit percentage in a match thus far this season.

MATCH TWO - Salisbury 3, Catholic 0 (31-29, 25-10, 25-19)

The first set was an epic battle that went well past 25 but the Seagulls prevailed 31-29. After falling behind 12-8, Catholic went on a 5-0 run to take a 13-12 after a kill from O'Brien. Turchiano put the Cardinals ahead late in the set 23-21 with a kill, but Salisbury took three straight points to set up a set point. The teams traded points for the remainder of the match and the Cardinals forced multiple set points, but the Seagulls took the final three volleys to finally take the set. 

Salisbury could do no wrong in the second set, hitting .471 to take the frame convincingly 25-10. The Seagulls also held the Cardinals to a -.105 hit percentage to cruise to a 2-0 lead.

Catholic battled late in the decisive third set but came up short 25-19. After falling behind 19-8, the Cardinals went on a 6-2 run where Turchiano had a kill and Tanya Sichling added an ace to try and claw back into the match. Faughnan and Raab picked up kills down the stretch but the Seagulls closed it out on the second match point to end with a 3-0 sweep. The Cardinals are now 6-10 on the season after the split. 

Faughnan led the team in kills with eight, followed by Raab and Turchiano who each finished with six. Berra and Carella against split time at setter and had 13 and 12 assists respectively. Sichling led the team in digs with 11. 

The Cardinals next match will be on the road in Landmark play against Lycoming on Friday, October 10 at 6 pm at Lamade Gym.