WHEELING — It was a long wait but the No. 25 Wheeling University volleyball team finally kicked off their season on Tuesday night inside the McDonough Center.

Although the season opener was on a different date, the result was more of the same.

Wheeling took care of Alderson Broaddus in straight sets 25-12, 25-15 and 25-11 to open the season with a victory.

Junior Allonda Watkins racked up 12 kills and seven blocks to lead the Cardinals, while senior Audrey Francis collected 14 digs.

Making their Wheeling University debuts were juniors Lexi Reinert and Kayla Bekier along with freshman Karly Niesen.

Niesen was all over the floor as she compiled 28 assists to help the offense.

Reinert delivered seven kills and Bekier added six in the victory.

West Liberty d. Fairmont State 25-19, 25-21, 19-25

19-25, 15-11

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University volleyball team scored the last five points of the fifth set to pull out a thrilling 3-2 victory over Mountain East Conference North Division rival Fairmont State inside the ASRC.

It was the second straight win for Coach Riley Schenk’s Hilltoppers (2-1), who held off a late FSU surge to knock the visiting Falcons from the ranks of the unbeaten.

“This was a very good win for us,” Schenk said. “Fairmont is a very talented team and even though we definitely weren’t always the prettiest in terms of execution but we came through with some ‘grind’ plays that really helped us get the win. We tend to serve much more aggressively in our home gym and that really helped us tonight.”

West Liberty appeared well on its way to a quick victory in the early going as the Black and Gold swept the first two sets by scores of 25-19 and 25-21 but Fairmont State – which had rallied from a similar 2-0 deficit to knock off Notre Dame (Ohio) in its last match – wasn’t going to go away that easily.

The Falcons switched the momentum with a 10-2 run midway through the third set to stay alive with a 25-19 decision. Fairmont opened the fourth set on a 5-0 run and never looked back, knotting the match at two games each with another 25-19 win.

Neither team led by more than a point during the fifth and final set until the Hilltoppers mounted their winning surge.

Trailing 11-10, West Liberty forged the game’s final deadlock on a kill by senior All-MEC middle blocker Maddie Clayton. With Clayton serving, Kirsten Bogunovich put WLU ahead to stay with a quick kill off a feed from Renee Lemke and Clayton made it 13-11 with a timely service ace.

Fairmont called timeout in an effort to stem the tide but the Hilltoppers finished off the Falcons with back-to-back kills from Bogunovich and Nina Billotto.

Sydlowski had a big night at the net with a match-high 18 kills while Bogunovich just missed a triple-double with 9 kills, 16 assists and 10 digs.