William Penn Closes Regular Season with Mount Mercy Sweep
William Penn Women’s Athletics
Cedar Rapids–The Lady Statesmen netters will enter postseason play with a little swagger after sweeping Mount Mercy 3-0 in Midwest Collegiate Conference play Wednesday.
William Penn (28-14, 3-3 MCC) won by scores of 27-25, 25-20, 25-13. The win, coupled with St. Ambrose’s 3-1 victory over Clarke, the Lady Statesmen draw the #5 seed in the MCC Tournament which begins Saturday.
William Penn will open play in Dubuque against #4 seed Clarke at 7 p.m. The first and only meeting between these two teams went in favor of the Crusaders 3-0 back on October 16.
Other quarterfinal matchups will pit #2 Viterbo vs. #7 AIB in La Crosse, Wis. and #3 St. Ambrose vs. #6 Mount Mercy in Davenport. Regular season champion Grand View will earn a bye in the opening round.
The victory was also notable as it was the program’s 750th all-time. The navy and gold are currently 750-608-12 in their 39 years on the court.
Jeanette Cunningham (Jr., Mt. Orab, Ohio, Elementary Education) played tremendously, pacing both the offense (14 kills and a .650 attack percentage) as well as the defense (five blocks–two solos, three assists).
“Jeanette was amazing for us tonight on both ends,” Head Coach Jeremy Wise said. “It was nice to see her step up in this big match. If she is clicking, it really opens up our offense to do a lot of things and takes the pressure off our outside hitters.”
Katie Rielly(Sr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Digital Communications), Kylie Giger (Fr., Elkhart, Ind., Undecided), and Alanna Connors (Jr., Libertyville, Ill., Biology) all tallied six kills.
Lacey Taylor (Sr., Cedar, Iowa, Elementary Education), who was named MCC Player of the Week on Monday, finished with five kills. She also served up the team’s lone ace, giving her 76 for the year. Over the weekend, the senior broke the school single-season aces record, surpassing the old mark of 73 set by Barb Sinnott from 1985 and 1987.
Danielle Breeher (Fr., St. Louis, Mo., Undecided) led the visitors with 19 digs.
“Our blocking and defense were on tonight, which is a good combination to have going into the playoffs,” Wise said. “What I was most proud of tonight is we got stronger as the match progressed. We brought the killer instinct we have been seeking.”
