YORK, Neb. – Regular season road trips are complete for the Kansas Wesleyan Women’s Volleyball team. The Coyotes closed the road schedule in fine fashion on Wednesday night sweeping the York Panthers 25-19, 25-9, 25-13 at the Freeman Center.

The win puts the Coyotes in a 3-way tie for first place in the KCAC with Bethel and Oklahoma Wesleyan, all at 11-1 overall. OKWU and Bethel play on Saturday, while the Coyotes host Evangel to close the regular season.

Wesleyan slowly pulled away in the first set, building a 15-7 lead after Josie Deckinger’s service ace, but York hung around, getting within three points at 19-16, before a sneaky kill by Deckinger from the setter position stopped York’s run. The Panthers got no closer than three in the set as the Coyotes closed it out with three straight points including kills by Rylee Serpan and Kyla Moore to win 25-19.

Leading 5-4 in the second set the Coyotes broke it open with a 6-0 run to take an 11-4 lead on Serpan’s kill. After a York point, the Coyote ran off the next 10 points to take a 21-5 lead as Wesleyan easily won the second set 25-9.

A determined pack of Coyotes ran off the first four points of the third set to lead 4-0, but York got back into it, getting within two several times, the last at 9-7 before the Coyotes took control. Leading 9-7, Wesleyan went on an 8-2 run to take a 17-9 lead. It was 20-13 Coyotes when KWU ran off the last five points of the match to close things out in straight sets.

Kylee Harris was lights out for the Coyotes with 16 kills while hitting .625 for the match. Serpan added 11 kills hitting .273 as KWU hit .432 overall as a team. Deckinger had 31 assists along with her three kills and four digs. Wesleyan had nine service aces in the match with two each by Kelcey Hund, Gianna Adriaanse and Deckinger. Hund led the Coyote defense with 10 digs, as there weren’t many balls to dig in the match. Sarah Girard had three blocks.

Plenty of scenarios remain in the final match of the regular season on Saturday. The match between Bethel and Oklahoma Wesleyan is key in the standings to break part of the 3-way tie for first and will help determine the seeding for next week’s conference tournament. Wesleyan also needs to pick up a win on Saturday against Evangel to keep championship hopes alive.

The KCAC Tournament starts next week. KWU will be one of the top four seeds in the tournament and gets a direct berth into the conference quarterfinals which are next Friday in Hutchinson at the Sports Arena. The conference championship is next Saturday.

The regular season champion, or No. 1 seed, and the tournament champion are the conference’s automatic berths to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round. If the regular season champion also wins the tournament, the tournament runner-up is the second automatic berth.

NAIA Opening Rounds are November 18 at campus sites around the country. Opening Round winners advance to the NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship is November 29 through December 5 at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa.