Men's Volleyball rolls Emmanuel behind Cordray's strong showing

SALISBURY, N.C. – The Catawba College men's volleyball team dispatched Emmanuel, 3-0, to pick up its third sweep of the season on Friday night at Goodman Arena.

TEAM STATS

- Catawba (5-5) recorded a .247 hitting percentage, averaging 12.3 kills per set, while holding Emmanuel (1-8) to an .098 mark

- In service, the Lions had just as many errors (8-8) but failed to record an ace compared to the Catawba Indians' seven strikes

- The blue and white logged one more block at a 7-6 margin, but Emmanuel held a 39-37 in the digs category

- The hosts maintained a .389-.250 advantage in set percentage as the Lions were hampered by four bad sets

INDIVIDUAL STATS

- Eli Zdonek was lethal on the edges with 13 kills on 25 chances, going errorless with a .520 clip while chipping in five digs

- John Cordray got his breakout match, recording seven kills and nine digs as one of three Catawba Indians with multiple service aces

- Jacob Brown racked up seven kills and leapt to make a team-high four blocks, splitting the top spot with Kristian Smith

- Luke O'Neill landed a team-best three aces while stacking five digs and three blocks including a solo denial

- In addition to his impressive play at the net, Smith dished out 29 assists and found paydirt with three kills

- Suiting up at libero, Kekona Ulu collected a career-high seven digs

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Set

- Trevor Phillips got proceedings underway with a kill before Lion miscues and a pair of darts by Brown gave Catawba an early 7-3 edge

- Aidan Feeney strikes and two Carlos Guerrero blocks helped Emmanuel close in, shrinking the hosts' lead to 14-12

- Errors prevented the Lions from overtaking Catawba as the blue and white's blocking game stood tall in back-to-back Smith-Brown stops to make the gap six points

- Thijs Van der Wal and Andrew Michael turned in late points for Emmanuel, but an off-target serve on set point secured the opening stanza for Catawba in 25-18 fashion

Second Set

- The visitors rallied from another unfavorable start as Feeney and Van der Wal logged two kills apiece in the early portion, knotting the set at 6-6

- Catawba rattled off nine consecutive points including five via Zdonek kill and two via O'Neill ace

- Smith, Brown and Cordray dropped in darts to move with Emmanuel in lockstep, boasting a sizable 19-9 advantage

- The Catawba Indians smoothed over a couple of kills from Greg Bodus using Zdonek's eighth bullet of the set to record a resounding 25-12 win

Third Set

- Mistakes battered both teams to start the third frame but Cordray and Feeney managed to chalk up kills

- Van der Wal and Ed-Verian Basson pushed the Lions ahead, 11-10, before three kills in five rallies by Feeney got to the media timeout at 15-12

- Catawba roared back as O'Neill contributed to three blocks in a row, teaming up with Smith twice

- Phillips aces bookended a Zdonek strike, forcing an Emmanuel timeout as the Lions suddenly faced a 20-17 deficit

- Zdonek and Smith went back-to-back with kills and O'Neill turned in another ace; interrupted only by a Basson dart, Brown and Zdonek finished it off to complete the sweep

UP NEXT

The Catawba Indians begin a three-match road trip on Thursday, Feb. 13 at Fort Valley State. First serve is slated for 6 p.m.