Road Trip: Pittsburgh and West Virginia :: The Wildcats opened the 2005 BIG EAST season on the road at Pitt and WVU

Sept. 26, 2005

Villanova, Pa.-The Villanova volleyball team traveled to Pittsburgh, Pa. and Morgantown, W.Va. on Saturday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25, 2005 to open the 2005 BIG EAST season at Pitt and West Virginia.

Villanova has only played five home matches out of 15 thus far this season. The Wildcats opened the year with the Comcast Lobo Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M. They got to spend a few days in Jake Nevin Field House when they hosted La Salle and the Villanova Volleyball Classic before hitting the road once again to play Valparaiso and nationally ranked UCLA and Wisconsin in Madison, Wisc. at the InnTowner Invitational last weekend.

So Villanova volleyball is no stranger to road matches. However, Villanova was on a three-match losing streak and this was a tough way to start out the 2005 conference season.

Pitt had beaten the Wildcats for the seventh straight time in 2004, and the 'Cats had to come back from a 2-0 deficit against West Virginia to pull out a five-set win last year.

On Saturday, Sept. 23, Villanova snapped its losing streak and Pitt's winning streak against them when the Wildcats returned the favor and defeated the Panthers for the first time since 1998, 30-23, 30-25, and 30-21. Adrian Semrau (Grafton, Ohio) led the 'Cats with 14 kills. Kacy Sellers (Battle Creek, Mich.) added seven kills and six blocks. The 'Cats also limited Pitt to a .049 hitting percentage.

Villanova packed up again and traveled to Morgantown on Sunday, Sept. 25 to face the Mountaineers. The Wildcats got off to a slow start but picked up steam and took home a 3-1 victory (22-30, 30-19, 30-26, and 30-23) over WVU. VU had three players in double figure kills - Semrau (15k, 7 blocks), Alona Cherkez (Ukraine, Crimea) (14k, 19d) and Sellers (ten kills, 6 blocks, four service aces.

The Wildcats now have a two-match winning streak and are 2-0 in the BIG EAST for the first time since 1998, when they started 3-0. At the top of this page is a link to a photo gallery of pictures taken this past weekend during matches and dinners out.