WILKES-BARRE – A season-high .386 hitting percentage led the Wilkes University women's volleyball team to a straight-set sweep of visiting FDU-Florham in a Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) match Tuesday night at the Marts Center. The win snapped a five-match losing skid that the Colonels had against the Devils dating back to the 2013 season. Set scores were 25-7, 25-22, 25-16.

With the victory Wilkes moved back over .500 on the season at 8-7 overall and improved to 1-1 in the conference. FDU-Florham fell to 4-6 overall and to 0-2 in MAC Freedom matches.

Wilkes wasted little time jumping ahead of FDU-Florham as two Devils' attack errors and a kill by Laura Booths (Lake Ariel, PA/Western Wayne) gave the Colonels a 3-0 lead in the first set. Alex Ferrier (Auburn, PA/Blue Mountain) collected the first of her match-high 13 kills to make the score 7-1. Later in the set the Colonels scored seven-straight points to go ahead 17-5. Michele Natale (Kinnelon, NJ/Kinnelon) had a kill and an ace during the run and Booths contributed two kills and combined for a block with Christie Challenger (Schuylkill Haven, PA/Blue Mountain). Wilkes again scored seven in a row to close out the set at 25-7 with Kristie Najdek (Bethpage, NY/Island Trees) serving two aces and Ferrier getting the final kill.

The Devils seemed to rebound in the second set as the visitors found themselves ahead 5-1 and 8-3. Wilkes had another run in them, this time a 7-1 run, that pushed the Navy and Gold ahead 17-15. Najdek served two more aces in the run and Jamey Mikovich (Nesquehoning, PA/Panther Valley) had three kills. FDU-Florham regained the lead at 18-17 and led 20-18 but a four-point run by the Colonels put them back ahead 22-20 as Ferrier had a kill and then Natale followed with three consecutive kills off assists from Karlye Huffman (Sugar Run, PA/Wyalusing). After a Devils point Natale put away another kill and then it was Challenger who recorded the final point with a kill as Wilkes took set two 25-22 to go ahead 2-0 in the match.

The third set was played evenly through the first 10 points as the score was 5-5. The home team then scored 12 of the next 15 points to take a 17-8 lead. Huffman and Challenger had two aces each during the run. Mikovich then got hot on the serve as she served up three consecutive aces to make the score 22-10. Following FDU-Florham's best run of the night (six points) the Colonels scored the final three points needed to end the match with a 3-0 sweep as they won 25-16. It was the seventh time this season that Wilkes has defeated its opponent 3-0 and the first time in the series with FDU-Florham that Wilkes has earned a sweep dating back to 2008. The Colonels are now 4-8 against the Devils during that stretch.

Ferrier led the offense with 13 kills to tie her season-high. The senior hit .400 on the night. Natale hit .563 with 10 kills while Challenger hit .500 with six kills. Mikovich end with a .318 hitting percentage and eight kills. With her fifth kill of the night Mikovich moved into second place all-time at Wilkes with 1,210 kills, passing Alicia Vieselmeyer on the list.

Huffman directed the hot hitting offense with 37 assists. Julie Murphy (Mountaintop, PA/Crestwood) led Wilkes with eight digs in only two sets played while Caitlin Bower (Blandon, PA/Fleetwood) added seven digs. Challenger led the Colonels with three blocks. In all, 13 Colonels saw significant action on the night.

The Colonels will head to Dover, Del. for three non-conference matches. Action gets underway on Friday at 6:00 p.m. against the host Wesley College. Wilkes will then face John Jay College at 12:00 p.m. and Farmingdale State College at 2:00 p.m. Saturday.