It’s tournament time in Wheeling and yes, tickets will be available—a few at least.
Action gets underway Monday with the No. 4 vs. No. 5 games for both the men’s and women’s brackets taking place at the home site of the higher seed.
On the men’s side, No. 5 seed Wheeling heads to No. 4 Alderson Broaddus from the North Division, while the South’s first-round matchup pits Davis & Elkins at Concord.
For the women, No. 5 W.Va. Wesleyan heads to No. 4 West Virginia State while No. 5 Alderson Broaddus takes on No. 4 Fairmont State.
Quarterfinal action gets underway Thursday morning at WesBanco Arena, the home for the 2021 MEC championships. Tipping things off will be a women’s quarterfinal battle between No. 3 West Liberty and No. 2 Glenville State.
No. 2 seed in the North Wheeling will play the South’s No. 3 seed Concord on Thursday night at 8 p.m. The Cardinals earned the two seed by virtue of a tiebreaker with West Liberty that came into play after Wheeling won their head-to-head matchup Saturday, 84-74.
During that contest, junior All-American Lily Ritz eclipsed the career 1,000-point mark for the Cardinals, scoring 29 points with 21 doubles, her 31st-straight double-double. The nation’s leading rebounder and third-leading scorer will be paired against the nation’s leading shot blocker in Concord’s Riley Fitzwater.
On the men’s side, the Hilltoppers earned the top seed in the North and will play Friday at 2 p.m. and await the winner of the Davis & Elkins and Concord game from Monday.
Should the Cardinals’ men win their opener, they will advance to take on Charleston at 5 p.m. on Friday. The Golden Eagles earned the No. 1 seed in the South.
Cardinals Francis Breaks Conference Mark
Wheeling senior libero Audrey Francis entered Friday’s match with Notre Dame needing 24 digs to break the all-time MEC mark for career digs with 2,516.
She accumulated 27 in the Cardinals three-set sweep of the Falcons. It was fitting opponent to break the record against, as NDU’s Alex Kaeberlein set the mark in the fall of 2019.
The Sidney, Ohio native will have more opportunities to add to that total this week as the No. 15 Cardinals have two more matches this week on the road at Alderson Broaddus before finishing at West Liberty.
The MEC Volleyball Championships follow from March 9-13.
’Topper Matmen Hoist Championship Trophy
The West Liberty wrestling team is sending five of its wrestlers to the NCAA Division II wrestling tournament, including three Super Region 3 individual champions.
In the process, the Hilltoppers earned their first Super Region team championship since making the shift to Division II. The overall team success extended to head coach Danny Irwin, who was named Super Region 3 Coach of the Year in just his second season on the hilltop.
The Hilltoppers individual champions include Cole Laya (125), Tyler Warner (133) and Connor Craig (184), while Logan Kemp (197) and Francesco Borsellino (285) came in second, both winning True Second Place matches.
Those five all have a guaranteed spot in the national championship, which is set for March 12 and 13 in St. Louis. Only the top two finishers in each class are guaranteed a spot after the NCAA reduced the number of participants by 25 percent because of the pandemic.
Wild-card slots for the national tournament will be voted upon late tonight and announced tomorrow during the DII Wrestling Selection Show.
West Liberty’s Chase Morgan (165) and Ty McGeary (174) could still be voted in as wild-card selections as both finished third in their respective weight classes.
Ashland came in second, followed by Lake Erie, Indianapolis and fellow MEC school Notre Dame, which won the Super Region last winter.
Led by 10 points apiece from Sophie LaRose and Selena Coronis, the Barons took down Chatham 49-45 last week in a low-scoring contest for their first win of the season and first as a full member of the President’s Athletic Conference.
It was a balanced scoring effort from FUS as six players totaled between six and 10 points, including eight and a team-high 12 rebounds from Natalie Conner.
That just leaves Thiel and Waynesburg, along with the Bethany men still searching for their first victories of the shortened season.
Falcons, Golden Eagles Tabbed by Coaches
Notre Dame in the North and Charleston in the South were selected by the MEC coaches to win their respective divisions in the upcoming football season. That season gets underway Thursday with an opening slight of two games—Alderson Broaddus at Frostburg State and Fairmont State at Wheeling.
The Falcons received nine of the 12 first-place votes in the North, followed by Frostburg State (2) and Fairmont St. (1). Charleston and West Virginia State each received five first-place votes in the South, which Glenville St. and UNC-Pembroke each garnering a vote. UC edged WVS by five total points for first.
In the North, the coaches selected West Liberty to finish fourth, followed by Wheeling and conference newcomer AB sixth.
Notre Dame was the class of the conference in the Fall of 2019, finishing 9-1 in MEC play and winning two postseason games before falling to Slippery Rock in a 65-59 shootout in the third round. The Falcons open at home on Saturday, March 13 against West Liberty.
Weekly Conference Honors
The following athletes were honored last week by the MEC as the top performers in their respective sports:
| Players of the Week |
| Men’s Basketball: Glen Abram, West Virginia St. |
| Women’s Basketball: Olivia Belknap, West Liberty; Riley Fitzwater, Concord |
| Men’s Swimming/Diving: Majester Abdul-Jalil, Fairmont State; Andrew Creelman, Frostburg State |
| Women’s Swimming/Diving: Zsofi Bevardi, Fairmont State |
| Women’s Cross Country: Taylor Butler, Alderson Broaddus |
| Men’s Indoor Track & Field: Brian Vandusen, Wheeling |
| Women’s Indoor Track & Field: Emmarie Foote, Wheeling |
| Men’s Tennis: John Giesberts, Charleston |
| Men’s Soccer: Christos Charalambous, Charleston (Offensive); Gianluca Fiorini, Davis & Elkins (Defensive) |
| Women’s Volleyball: Julia DiPaoloa, Fairmont St. (Offensive); Taylor Wisniewski, Fairmont St. (Defensive) |
