Western Carolina 3, ETSU 2
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – The Western Carolina volleyball team ended its short two-match losing streak by knocking off one of the leaders of the Southern Conference Saturday afternoon. The Catamounts traveled to Johnson City, Tenn., and took down ETSU who entered the match ranked third in the SoCon standings. The match lasted just under two and half hours and the Catamounts hung on to capture a 3-2 victory.
Freshman Devan Ingram came off the bench to lead the Catamounts in the victory as she notched 12 kills in the match to go along with a pair of blocks. Sophomore Katie O’Connor returned to form with nine kills and a team-high seven blocks.
The win improves WCU’s record to 9-18 on the season and 3-8 in conference play. The Bucs dropped to 15-8 overall and 6-4 in league action.
Senior Nicole Ford added eight kills and three blocks while sophomore Jo-Leigh Vervelde recorded another double-double with 21 assists and 17 digs. She also had four kills and three blocks in the victory. Senior setter Cristina Nazario had 15 assists and five digs while senior libero Elyssa Mulheron had a team-high 20 digs.
The fifth and final set was a battle. Both teams traded points up until the 11-11 but that is when the Catamounts took over. A block by freshman Alyssa Zupan and O’Connor gave WCU a 12-11 lead. ETSU then had an attack error to give the Catamounts a two point lead. Another attack error gave WCU its first match point of the night. Ingram came through on the final play as she put down a kill off a set from Vervelde to give WCU a 15-11 lead.
The Catamounts will continue their road trip next Friday as they travel to The Citadel for a 6 p.m. match.
Wofford 3, Mercer 2
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Charged by Bella Santoro’s 19 kills, the Wofford volleyball team rallied from two sets down to complete a five-set comeback over Mercer (19-25, 24-26, 25-21, 25-18, 15-11) on Homecoming Saturday at Benjamin Johnson Arena.
The win makes it four straight for Wofford (15-12, 6-4 SoCon), who improve to 8-2 in the month of October, including a perfect 5-0 at home. Saturday night’s victory also marked the second time this season the Terriers have come back from two sets down to win, last doing so against Charleston Southern on September 18.
The Terriers struggled to hit .136 and .053 in the first two sets, respectively. Mercer (9-13, 4-6 SoCon) hit .342 to cruise through the first and held off a late Wofford run in the second set to take a 2-0 lead.
Wofford came out of the locker room a new team. Santoro put down seven kills and freshman Colleen Reilly added six to push the Terriers through the third. The fourth was owned by sophomore Danni Densford, who connected on all seven of her swings to help Wofford hit .452, forcing a fifth set.
The Terriers took a 6-2 lead in the tiebreak, but Mercer rallied off five straight to go in front, 7-6. Wofford retook the lead with Santoro serving and the set remained within a point at 12-11.
The final three points were grabbed by the Terriers. Sophomore Alex Holland put down the last of her 15 kills to get the ball back on Wofford’s side of the net. Santoro and Reilly then combined to block Mercer’s Monica Johnson to earn match point and Reilly finished it off with her 16th kill.
UNCG 3, Samford 0
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG volleyball recorded its seventh-straight victory Saturday, downing Southern Conference preseason favorite Samford 3-0 (27-25, 25-17, 25-18) inside Fleming Gymnasium.
The Spartans (17-8, 7-3 SoCon) improved to 9-0 at home this season and remained a perfect 17-0 when winning the opening set (32-1 overall under head coach Corey Carlin). Meanwhile, the Bulldogs (8-11, 3-6 SoCon) suffered their fourth-straight loss. UNCG also flipped the script so to speak having been swept by Samford earlier this season down in Birmingham.
Western Carolina did the Spartans a favor earlier in the day by knocking off ETSU in Johnson City. As a result, UNCG is alone in third place in the league standings with six matches to play before the conference tournament as well as just a game behind Furman – who the Blue and Gold swept a couple of weeks ago – for the top spot.
A trio of Spartans recorded nine kills in the match in junior outside hitter Jessica Brezwyn, sophomore outside hitter Ashley Muench and freshman middle hitter Jasmine Jones. Jones added six blocks (all assists) while Muench tallied 11 digs. Brezwyn made just one error to fire at a .364 clip. Senior libero Katherine Santiago collected a match-high 15 digs to go along with four assists.
UNCG played a clean offensive match hitting over .200 in every set and committing just nine unforced errors. The Spartans hit a collective .239 while limiting Samford to just .131 efficiency. Defensively, the Blue and Gold outblocked the Bulldogs 8.0 to 5.0 and held a slight 50-48 edge in digs.
UNCG returns to the court Wednesday when it travels to Mercer for a SoCon matchup. The Spartans and Bears will serve it up inside Hawkins Arena at 5 p.m.
Furman 3, The Citadel 0
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Behind a match-high 11 kills from Annie Bierman, Furman volleyball powered past The Citadel, 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-19), on Saturday night in Alley Gym. The win moves the Paladins to 14-6 and 8-2 in SoCon play, while the loss drops the Bulldogs to 7-19 and 0-9 in SoCon play.
Bierman led all hitters with 11 kills, hitting .350 and adding a service ace and 11 digs. Taina Joseph and Amelia Bohlander both hit over .700, combining for 17 kills and no errors, while three Furman setters combined for 34 assists. Bohlander also led the team with three blocks. Furman limited The Citadel to 30 kills and a .157 hitting percentage, while racking up 49 kills and a .482 hitting percentage.
Furman took an early lead in the first set, but The Citadel rallied to cut the lead to two at 8-6. Christen Sikora then served Furman on an 8-0 run to open up a 16-6 lead, then pushed the lead to 13 at 20-7. The teams then traded points until the Paladins grabbed set points at 24-10. The Citadel would not go away quietly, however, using four-straight points to cut the lead to 24-14. Taina Joseph ended the Bulldogs’ comeback and the Paladins took the first set, 25-14.
The teams traded points early in set two until Furman used a 5-1 run to take an 11-6 lead and force a Bulldog timeout. The Paladins then stretched the lead to six at 16-10 and 18-12, before closing out the set on a 7-3 run to win set two, 25-15, for a 2-0 match lead.
Furman opened up an 8-3 lead in set three, before The Citadel used five-straight points out of a timeout to tie the set at eight. Furman used a 6-2 run to force the Bulldogs’ second timeout, trailing 14-10. The Citadel then cut the Furman lead to one at 17-16, but the Paladins finished the set on an 8-3 run to take set three, 25-19, and the match, 3-0.
Furman is back in action on Wednesday night, traveling to ETSU for a 6 p.m. match in Johnson City, Tenn.