Women's Volleyball splits tight battles against Barton, Mount Olive on opening day

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Catawba College women's volleyball team began the 2024 season at the Shaw Tournament on Friday, opening the day with a 3-0 sweep of Barton before falling 3-2 in a barnburner against Mount Olive.

CATAWBA 3, BARTON 0

TEAM STATS

- Catawba (1-0) tallied 34 kills on a .300 hitting percentage while Barton (0-1) had the upper hand in kills with 39 but logged a lower success rate of .282

- Attack errors plagued the Bulldogs who committed 15 gaffes compared to Catawba's 10

- Barton finished with the advantage in digs with a 25-20 edge

- Catawba used its height at the net to its advantage, totaling seven blocks; its opponent did not attempt any blocks

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

- Kelcie Love paced the offense with 10 kills, extending her double-digit kills streak from last season to 10 matches

- Sydney McCutcheon posted 11 assists in her collegiate debut while sharing the setter position with fellow newcomer Haley Moffett who had eight helpers

- At the net, Katie Clark elevated for three blocks in the contest including the match's lone solo stop

- Rachel Gonzales dug out five attacks as Riley Hill followed with four

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Set

- The teams traded serves throughout the early going with neither side gaining more than a two-point lead

- Catawba began to pull away, taking a 20-16 edge before the Bulldogs closed the gap and reached set point with a Henly Sleight ace

- The Catawba Indians stormed back to score four points in a row and take the set, 26-24

- Clark, Love, and Jordan Danielson finished the stanza with three kills apiece

Second Set

- Gonzales' well-placed serves got Catawba ahead 6-0, creating a hole that Barton promptly filled as the Bulldogs cut the deficit to 9-8

- Moffett had four consecutive serves midway through the set thanks to a pair of misplaced Bulldog spikes and an ace, stretching the gap to a three-point, 18-15 Catawba edge

- Barton used a timeout to regroup after trailing 22-20 to force extra volleyball

- Big kills from Love and costly Barton miscues helped propel Catawba to a 27-25 triumph

Third Set

- After being neck and neck early in the third period, Catawba gradually built a lead that got to 18-12

- However, the Bulldogs fought hard to stay alive and gained a 20-18 lead, causing Catawba to burn two timeouts during the eight-point run

- Clark recorded a pair of blocks and McCutcheon dropped in two points to complete the late comeback, winning 25-21

MOUNT OLIVE 3, CATAWBA 2

TEAM STATS

- Mount Olive (1-0) led the Catawba Indians (1-1) in kills, set assists, and digs

- Catawba had a small 15-14 advantage in aces, spreading their output over six players

- The teams had matching block totals with three solos and two assists

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

- Love made it an 11th straight match with 10 or more kills, piling on a team-high 12. Danielson also cracked double digits in a 10-kill affair, logging a mighty .233 hitting percentage

- McCutcheon set a new career high with 16 assists while also chipping in nine digs

- Hill collected 11 digs to go with four service aces, leading Catawba in both categories

- Lauren Bodell denied two volleys at the net, one of three Catawba players to log a solo stop

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Set

- The Trojans started red-hot, rattling off 10 consecutive points to begin the contest

- Catawba stopped the flood as they engaged UMO in a back-and-forth battle

- Moffett helped in the comeback effort with back-to-back aces

- Despite a brush of momentum late, the deficit was too severe to recover from as the Catawba Indians dropped set one, 25-16

Second Set

- Trojan kills and unforced errors told the story at the beginning of the second set

- After two McCutcheon aces leveled proceedings at 11-11, UMO went on a six-point run

- Hill thrived in service, landing a pair of aces with a Danielson block and Natalie Rehm kill to nab the lead

- An ace from Kary Hales, an offensive miscue by the Trojans, and a kill by Danielson chalked up a set win for Catawba

Third Set

- Neither team could get into rhythm with sideouts on nearly every serve

- Danielson registered four kills in the set

- Knotted at 24-24, the Trojans sent an errant attack and had a setting miscue that allowed Catawba to boast a 2-1 advantage in the match

Fourth Set

- Catawba struggled to land its attacks while UMO began to correct its mistakes from the previous sets. Catawba hit .091 in the set compared to the Trojans' mark of .263

- Consecutive Katrina Misra kills on McCutcheon assists made it a 18-17 UMO lead

- Following a kill by Breanna Reisinger, the Trojans never looked back with three Catawba errors, two kills, and an ace to force a fifth stanza

Fifth Set

- In another evenly-matched period, Catawba held strong but fell behind 12-10 before a much-needed timeout halted the skid

- Coming out of the break, UMO's serve missed the mark and McCutcheon recorded a kill to make it 12-all

- The Trojans called a timeout which got the momentum back in their favor as Ashlyn Stone snapped Catawba's service and Lyndsay Reid tallied two aces to win it for UMO

UP NEXT

Catawba wraps up its trip to the Capital City against host Shaw tomorrow at 2 p.m