Sept. 11, 2007

Box Score

CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Senior middle blocker Meredith Harmon recorded a season-high 17 kills in Western Carolina volleyball's (3-8) 3-1 (19-30, 30-26, 25-30, 25-30) loss to Gardner-Webb (7-5) in the Catamounts opening home-match of the season Tuesday in the Ramsey Center.

Harmon had a strong outing to begin her senior campaign at home. She not only had 17 kills on 33 attacks but had just two errors for a .455 attack percentage. Harmon also had a solo block and four block assists.

"Meredith did all she could, she really put the team on her shoulders," said Head Coach Stephanie Dragan. "She had a slow start in the match but really stepped it up when the team needed her to."

The Catamounts struggled early producing a .028 hitting percentage in game one. Western Carolina was also stymied when freshman outside hitter Jelena Jakovjevic went out in game one with an injury.

"Jelena getting hurt in game one really put a kink in our offense," Dragan said. "LaTonia [Cunningham], Jessica [Whitley] and Amanda [Kerr] did a good job in being flexible in the positions we put them in during the match."

Western Carolina battled back to tie the game at one, getting a win in game two. The Catamounts produced their best hitting percentage of the match with a .292 and looked to have momentum going into the locker room.

The Catamounts built a 12-10 lead in game three after getting a big kill by Whitley but a Gardner-Webb kill and a pair of Western Carolina attack errors gave the Bulldogs the lead and they never relinquished it.

Gardner-Webb scored four consecutive points to start game four and the early lead by the Bulldogs was something Western Carolina could never recover from. The Catamounts hit just .056 in game four and had 10 attack errors.

"We just seemed to lose focus in games three and four," Dragan said. "That was our youth showing and our freshmen playing like freshmen."

Sophomore setter Katie Hennessey tied her season high with 39 assists and also led the Catamounts with four service aces. Libero Liz Rondone also had a season-high with 24 digs.

Western Carolina returns to action on Friday when the club hosts the sixth annual Catamount Clash. The team will begin play 2:30 p.m. with a match-up with UNC Wilmington before facing Southern Conference foe The Citadel at 7 p.m.