INSTITUTE, W.Va. – A scintillating comeback effort came up short for the West Liberty University volleyball team here Friday night as Wheeling held on for a 3-1 win in a Mountain East Conference Tournament semifinal at the Walker Center on the campus of West Virginia State University.
    Coach Riley Schenk's Hilltoppers (21-13), ranked No. 10 in the Atlantic Region, struggled to get anything going in the first two sets as the No. 1-ranked Cardinals (26-5) opened up a 2-0 lead by scores of 25-19 and 25-18.
    Faced with a seemingly insurmountable deficit, West Liberty refused to fold. Junior standout Kirsten Bogunovich said it was a different Hilltopper team that came back out for the third set.
    "We just looked at each other in the huddle before the set and more or less said, 'This is it. This could be our last game. Let's give it everything we've got," Bogunovich said. "I think we showed our integrity as a group, pulling it together. We definitely picked it up."
    The Black and Gold scored the first five points of the third set and never looked back, fighting their way back into the match with an impressive 25-14 blowout.
    Momentum swung back and forth throughout the fourth set with neither team able to create much separation. Trailing 24-22, the Hilltoppers fought off back-to-back match points to extend the set but couldn't keep the Cardinals from closing things out with a 26-24 win.
    "We came in here with no fear," Schenk said. "We were excited to see (Wheeling) in our bracket. This was the third time we played them this season and it's hard to beat a team three times.
    "We did a lot of good things tonight; we just didn't do enough of them. We made too many mental errors and our youth showed at times but I'm proud of how we played. We put up a good fight. We just didn't get the outcome we wanted."
    Freshman Riley Cudnik had a huge night with a match-high 21 kills while hitting at a .320 clip. Maddie Clayton was also a force at the net with 11 kills and a match-high 5 blocks.
    Bogunovich was all over the court in a record-setting night. The versatile junior from Alliance, Ohio had her second triple-double of the season with 11 kills, 29 assists and 18 digs. Her 29 assists pushed her season total to 856, eclipsing Chelsea Byrge's 9-year-old school record of 828 assists from 2012. She is only the 14th NCAA D2 woman to post multiple triple-doubles this season.
    Haley Zeck added a double-double with 23 assists and 11 digs while Nyia Setla's team-high 21 digs also put her in the WLU record book. The 21 digs gave the sophomore from Northville, Mich. 696 digs for the 2021 season. The previous school standard of 681 digs was set by Kailee Cunningham in 2016.
    While disappointed to come up one match shy of playing for an MEC Tournament title, Schenk said the future of Hilltopper volleyball is bright.
    "We wanted to put ourselves in the regional conversation and we did that. I had been running a lot of different lineups out there for a good bit of the season but the last 8 to 10 games, we settled on a lineup that really flowed and we beat some really good teams.
    "Losing a pair of seniors like Maddie and Mackenzie Daub are big losses. We'll miss their talents and especially their leadership but we have a lot of good players returning who gained valuable experience and are really looking forward to taking that next step. We're excited."
    Defending champion Wheeling and No. 1 seed West Virginia State will play for the MEC Tournament championship Saturday at 7 p.m.