Men’s Volleyball grounds Flying Fleet in high-scoring sweep

DUE WEST, S.C. – The Catawba College men's volleyball team muscled through a trio of tight sets to blank Erskine, 3-0, on Friday night at Belk Arena.

TEAM STATS

- Catawba (6-6) nipped Erskine (4-4) in hitting efficiency with a .286 clip compared to the hosts' .226

- The blue and white narrowly bested the Flying Fleet in set percentage (.398-.388), reception percentage (.918-.897) and service percentage (.895-.871) while leading the ace count 7-5

- Erskine had one less block by a 6-5 margin, but the Catawba Indians committed two blocking errors and a pair of ball-handling errors

- The Flying Fleet commanded a 32-25 advantage in digs, totaling two more kills (41-39) and one more assist (38-37)

INDIVIDUAL STATS

- Trevor Phillips averaged nearly five kills per set with his 14 strikes while providing two aces and four digs

- Eli Zdonek stacked 10 kills on top of five digs, one ace, and a solo block

- Kristian Smith absorbed all 37 of Catawba's assists and landed a team-high three aces in addition to tallying four digs and two block assists

- Wyatt Eastin led the Catawba Indians at the net with three total stops including a solo denial while recording four kills on nine swings offensively

- Max Adkisson registered a match-high eight digs, his most in a three-set contest this season

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Set

- Phillips kicked off the match with an ace before Eastin and John Cordray teamed up for a block and each collected a kill to give Catawba a slight edge

- Darts from Jacob Brown and Phillips were followed by three Erskine points that shifted the lead toward the hosts at 10-9

- After trailing 13-12, Phillips racked up three kills with an ace to power an 8-2 run for the Catawba Indians

- The squads went kill-for-kill in the final moments as Catawba held on to chalk up a 25-21 opening stanza

Second Set

- Brown started the second frame off with a kill and an ace for a quick lead, but the Flying Fleet responded again as Shayo Asiru notched two blocks and had a hand in a block to close the gap

- Eastin's solo stop gave Catawba a three-point edge at 13-10 ahead of Erskine's continued ability to draw even featuring a block, kill, and multiple dimes from Gino Briglio

- Jacob Mullen dropped in his third strike of the set to provoke a Catawba timeout as Aidon Love came out of the break with an ace, but a couple of errors brought the score back to 22-22

- An assisted block between Briglio and Asiru got the Flying Fleet to set point before Zdonek and Phillips helped the visitors fire back with a 4-1 swing to snatch the stanza in 27-25 fashion

Third Set

- Consecutive aces by Smith capped a 6-2 surge in Catawba's favor to break open the third set

- Erskine won six of the next seven rallies to slip ahead but the blue and white got kills from Brown and Phillips to tie it up before two miscues presented the Fleet with a 12-10 deficit

- Three Kyle Krantz darts were matched by Catawba points from a host of avenues in a back-and-forth segment

- A couple of mistakes by the visitors pushed Erskine in front at 21-19, forcing a Catawba timeout; time to regroup ended up being the remedy as Zdonek's block and two kills combined with Fleet blunders locked up the match for the visitors

UP NEXT

The Catawba Indians continue to be road warriors leading into next week as the squad travels to Mount Olive on Tuesday, Feb. 18 for a 7 p.m. tilt.