Men’s Volleyball hangs tough in season-opening loss to Charleston

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Catawba College men's volleyball team dropped its inaugural match against the University of Charleston, 3-0, on Tuesday night at the Wehrle Innovation Center.

TEAM STATS

- The Catawba Indians (0-1) totaled 18 kills on an .050 hitting percentage, trailing the strong .352 success rate posted by Charleston (1-0)

- In service, the blue and white finished with a slight advantage of .750-.740 percentage-wise while UC out-aced Catawba 6-3, but the Golden Eagles were riddled by 19 errant serves

- The visitors logged sideout percentages above .500 in each set, but also surrendered .750 or better marks in each stanza

- Although Catawba led the solo block category 5-3, UC teamed up for most of its stops to lead the total count 9-6

INDIVIDUAL STATS

- Outside hitter Eli Zdonek shined with six kills on 15 swings, hitting .333 with a quartet of digs

- Jacob Brown tallied four kills in addition to dealing out two service aces

- The setting duties were delegated primarily to Kristian Smith who racked up 13 assists with a block and a dig

- Freshman libero Max Adkisson debuted at the college level with five digs and a pair of helpers

- Brown and Trevor Phillips made two blocks apiece – one solo, one assist – as Smith, Cam Reeder, and Wyatt Eastin each chipped in one solo stop

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Set

- UC jumped out to a 4-1 edge when Reeder and Brown followed with back-to-back historic points: the first kill and ace in program history

- The squads traded off-target serves until Zdonek stopped the skid, but a sudden run featuring two Golden Eagle blocks upped the hosts' lead to 11-6 and forced Catawba to call timeout

- Consecutive kills by Joonatan Salpakari helped UC boost the gap to 15-8 when Catawba slimmed the gap by three with a Zdonek kill, Reeder block, and another Brown ace

- Phillips went kill-block to get Catawba within three points, but a timeout from the Golden Eagles steadied the hosts who bagged the opening frame, 25-19

Second Set

- Brown leapt early to chalk across the first point in set No. 2 as UC won the ensuing two rallies, but Zdonek blasted back-to-back kills to keep Catawba in front

- The Golden Eagles started to find footing despite being hampered by Brown and Reeder kills as well as a Phillips-Brown stop at the net

- Clicking well with a variety of hitters, UC setter Paul Stommel set up his teammates for needed darts that caused Catawba to burn both timeouts in quick succession as the split reached seven

- The Catawba Indians refused to go away as Phillips aced, Reeder killed, and Eastin elevated for a block, but a Catawba serve missed the mark and Bomert landed an ace to lift the UC advantage to 2-0

Third Set

- A neck-and-neck start featured three serve-breaking kills by Catawba until a three-point slide tilted the score in favor of UC

- Following an Eastin kill that made it 10-8, John Cordray and Nate Seeger subbed in for their Catawba debuts

- An 10-3 run haunted the visitors who stared into a 20-11 deficit coming out of their second timeout

- Zdonek picked up a kill immediately after the break and Brown denied an attack two rallies later to prolong the set

- Three straight errors committed by UC and Cordray's first career kill on match point kept the blue and white in business, but the Golden Eagles closed it out with a Kai Cousins blast

UP NEXT

Catawba ventures over to Bristol, Tenn. on Thursday, Jan. 9 to battle the King Tornado. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.