Nov. 4, 2006

Final Stats

Charleston, S.C. - Seven of the nine Catamounts who played combined to set or tie ten career highs as Western Carolina spoiled senior day at The Citadel, rallying to edge the home standing Bulldogs, 3-2 (30-27, 23-30, 26-30, 30-22, 15-10) at McAlister Field House Saturday afternoon.

Five different Catamounts reached double-figures in kills, all setting individual career highs, while three set individual bests in digs and two reached or tied their blocking top career numbers in the win.

Junior Meredith Harmon led the way with 23 kills, one more than her previous career-best set earlier this season in a win over High Point. The Villa Hills, Ky., native hit .358, committing just four errors in 53 total attacks. Freshman setter Katie Hennessey recorded her second-career, triple-double with a career-best tying 11 kills, 51 set assists and 12 digs, while her classmate, Lauren Brown, posted her first career double-double tallying 13 kills and 10 digs.

Subbing for senior Heather Koontz, who was injured in the previous match at East Tennessee State last Tuesday and did not make the trip to Charleston, redshirt freshman Lanna Roach posted a career-high with 12 kills and eight digs, while freshman Amanda Kerr finished with 10 kills and a career-best seven blocks.

In addition to Hennessey and Brown with double-digit digs, senior Meghan Boyle and freshman Amanda Todd each posted a career-highs with 28 and 11, respectively, while senior Kate Willard added 13. Boyle also added four blocks to tie her career-best.

Although freshman libero Liz Rondone was not among the career-high setting barrage Saturday afternoon, she did inch closer to a Southern Conference record. The Bloomington, Ind., native led the squad with a match-high 37 digs despite only tallying one in game two to join the 30-dig club for the sixth time this season. Already the WCU single-season record holder with 728 digs currently, Rondone is now just eight digs shy of tying and nine digs shy of breaking a SoCon record which was established last season by the league's Freshman of the Year, UTC's Lara Newberry (736).

"Playing short-handed without one of our seniors, I am very proud of the way the team bounced back from the 2-1 deficit to rally to pick up the win over a team who had beaten us earlier this season," said head coach Stephanie Dragan. "Aside from the career-setting day offensively, I think it was our defense that helped us come out on top today. Our defense did a tremendous job at getting touches on The Citadel's attacks creating long rallies, but our team simply would not give up.

"I am proud of the way Lanna (Roach) and Amanda (Todd) stepped into the lineup today, and with the way Katie (Hennessey) distributed the ball to our hitters. Both Meghan (Boyle) and Lizzy (Rondone) were phenomenal leading our defense and I thought (Amanda) Kerr did a great job blocking at the net," Dragan added.

Trailing two games to one, Western (8-23, 4-12 SoCon) scored victories in games four and five to win the match. The Catamounts came out with great intensity in the fourth game, taking a 24-12 lead. However, WCU was unable to quickly close out the game as the pesky Bulldogs fought back to within six at the 28-22 mark, but a kill by Brown followed by a Citadel attack error sealed the 30-22 game win for WCU.

In the deciding fifth, Western led nearly start to finish, pulling out to the 2-0 lead before three-consecutive Bulldog points gave the home team the one-point advantage. Yet, a kill by Harmon and another Bulldog attack error gave the Catamounts the lead for good and WCU sealed the match win with the 15-10 game win. The Citadel offense sputtered in the game, hitting .097 while Western Carolina hit .216, its highest of the match.

The Citadel (10-21, 2-14 SoCon) was led by freshman Taylor Stanke who recorded a career high and team season-high 23 kills in the match. Leading the Bulldogs defensively was sophomore libero Ashley Winter who recorded 28 digs. Three Cadets recorded double-doubles on the day as Emily Hill's 50 assists came with her career high 24 digs. Rachel Sanders recorded 19 kills and a career high 27 digs while senior Samantha Parisi recorded 15 kills and 16 digs.

Western concludes the road portion of its schedule on Sunday afternoon as it visits the College of Charleston at 2:00 pm. The Catamounts are looking for their first back-to-back wins this season, but will have a daunting task as the face the league-leading Cougars. WCU returns home next Sunday, Nov. 12, for its senior day against Furman at 2:00 pm in the Ramsey Center.