LA PLUME, PA – The Wilkes University women's volleyball team travelled to Keystone College Monday night and came away with a 3-1 (25-18, 24-26, 25-18, 25-22) victory for its 16^th win of the season.

Now at 16-8 overall, Wilkes has reached 16 wins for just the fourth time in program history. Keystone dropped to 6-12.

Wilkes began to put distance on Keystone in the first set when Alex Ferrier (Cressona, PA/Blue Mountain) provided a kill, Juliet Betke (Poplar Grove, IL/Belvidere North) followed with two service aces and Christie Challenger (Schuylkill Haven, PA/Blue Mountain) put away a kill consecutively to make the score 13-6. The Giants were unable to close the deficit and Wilkes ended the set at 25-18 after a Ferrier kill and Jamey Mikovich (Nesquehoning, PA/Panther Valley) solo block.

The Colonels led 5-2 early in the second set after a Mikovich kill but the Giants battled back to take an 11-10 lead. Neither team could gain a two-point advantage from that point until Keystone scored two-straight with the score at 24-24 to take the set 26-24.

With the third set tied at seven Wilkes went on a 7-0 run to take control of the set. The Colonels were aided by five Giants errors and Sierra Smith (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee) and Michele Natale (Kinnelon, NJ/Kinnelon) had kills during the run. Kills by Karlye Huffman (Sugar Run, PA/Wyalusing) and Challenger provided the final two points needed to push Wilkes ahead 2-1 with a 25-18 victory.

Wilkes fell behind 9-5 early in the fourth set but a Ferrier kill tied the score at 10-10. The Colonels then took the lead 15-14 after a Keystone bad set. Five-consecutive points on kills by Mikovich and Smith and two more from Natale along with a Giants attack error pushed the Wilkes lead to 20-15. After the Giants closed the score to 21-20, Wilkes was able to get four of the next six points with three coming on Keystone errors to take the set 25-22 and the match 3-1.

The Colonels strong defense helped them to victory as they held a 91-79 advantage in digs on the night.

Mikovich recorded her 14^th double-double of the season with 17 kills and 22 digs. Betke led the way defensively with 27 digs and Huffman directed the offense from the setter position with 38 assists and also had a career high 14 digs. Smith established a career high with nine kills while Ferrier also added nine. Natale had seven and Challenger had six kills. Julie Murphy (Mountaintop, PA/Crestwood) contributed eight digs and Shayna Fehrle (Philadelphia, PA/St. Hubert) added six.

The Colonels return to the court to take on cross-town rival King's at the Marts Center in a Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom match at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday.