(Courtesy of Wilmington University Sports Information)

A highly competitive rivalry is brewing on the court between the Wilmington University volleyball team and Georgian Court, as the two needed to go the distance for the second straight match spanning two seasons, with the Wildcats coming out on top, 3-2, on Tuesday night at the WU Athletics Complex.

Set scores for the match were 25-19, 12-25, 25-22, 21-25, and 15-11.

Last year, the two teams met in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament Semifinals here at the WU Athletics Complex and for the second year in a row, the Wildcats (4-5, 2-0 CACC) came out on top in five sets. Georgian Court (1-5, 1-1 CACC) battled back to tie the match after going down 1-0, and 2-1, but four straight points to break a 6-6 tie in the fifth set was too much for the Lions.

The fifth and deciding set was back and forth in the early going, with the Lions grabbing a 4-2 lead before the Wildcats fought back with two straight points to knot the game at 4-4. After a ball handling error gave the Lions a brief 5-4 lead, Brittany Biddle tied the set with a kill before Kaitlin DiGiacinto gave the home tea a 6-5 lead with a team. Georgian Court was forced to call a timeout.Following the timeout, the Lions tied the match with a kill at 6-6, but a service error gave the point and the serve back to the Wildcats. A block by Katie Shorter and Allison Briley, a Georgian Court attack error and a Shelby Henderson service ace boosted the Wildcats to a 10-6 lead in the deciding set.

Georgian Court was able to close the gap to two at 13-11 by scoring four out of five points, forcing Wilmington into a timeout. But after the break, DiGiacinto gave the Wildcats set and match point at 14-11, and a Georgian Court attack error ended the match in favor of the home team.

The win gave Wilmington its seventh straight victory over the Lions, starting with a 3-2 victory early in 2011. Georgian Court continues to lead the all-time series, 12-10, however.

A trio of Wildcats paced the offense with double digit kills as DiGiacinto led the team with 13. Briley added 11 kills while Shorter chipped in with 10. DiGiacinto and Briley finished with a double-double, collected 12 and 11 digs, respectively.

Sophomore Alex Siolos also added a double-double as she dished out 21 assists and helped the defense with 10 digs. Fellow setter Kasey Couch also passed out 21 helped, as she added 12 digs to collect the double-double as well. Shelby Henderson led the entire back row with 10 digs for the Wildcats.

At the net, Siolos helped a defense to a team total 10 blocks, denying five block assists while adding one solo block. Shorter denied one attack by herself while adding four block assists. Biddle chipped in with nine kills and three block assists on the night.

After hitting .417 to grab the lead in the first set, the Wildcats' offense sputtered as they hit negative.029 in the second, .179 in the third and .000 in the fourth set. The team rebounded excellently in the fifth and deciding set, collecting six kills on 12 attempts with only one error for a .417 hitting percentage. For the match, the Wildcats hit .155.

Three Lions reached double-digits in kills, including: Anabelle Barinas (18), Tatiana Villariny Rodriguez (15), and Gabriela Berrios-Hernandez (10). Berrios added 11 digs for the double-double while #Jaslene Lopez contributed a double-double of her own with 49 assists and 17 digs.

Francheska Cedres and Dara Schroeder had stellar games in the back row for the Lions with 36 and 18 digs, respectively.

Georgian Court travels to Springfield, Mass. this weekend to participate in the American International College Invitational Tournament.