Oct. 10, 2008

Box Score

CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Western Carolina volleyball (3-16, 1-5 SoCon) had a pair of career-high performances from Amanda Kerr and Sara Gantt and Liz Rondone is three digs from breaking the career digs record but it wasn't enough to stop Georgia Southern who defeated the Catamounts 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 21-25, 26-28) Friday in the Ramsey Center.

Junior middle blocker Kerr had career-best 22 digs in the match and also notched a double-double with 12 digs. She had a .207 attack percentage with 58 attacks and 10 errors. Freshman Gantt had 14 digs on just three rotations a game.

A host of fans helped Rondone countdown to her career mark. The junior from Bloomington, Illinois currently has 1, 679 digs in her career just three shy of the Catamount career record which is 1,682. the libero came close to smashing the record against Georgia Southern as she racked up a season-high 32 digs against the Eagles.

"We had some amazing performances tonight," said Head Coach Stephanie Dragan. "Career-highs and records getting broken and we couldn't win the match. We just need to learn to finish a match."

Western Carolina played the Eagles close all match. The Eagles took game one 25-11 but the Catamounts bounced back in game two to tie it up heading into halftime. Western Carolina led for most of game two and had the Eagles down 24-21 but GSU soared back to 24-23 but an Eagle service error game WCU the win.

Two more close matches followed but Western Carolina just couldn't get the points in key moments. In the fourth game, the Catamounts were up 24-22 and led GSU get two straight points to tie the game. It was tied two more times before the Eagles got the advantage 26-27 off a kill by Bethany Sanford. A Catamount attack error gave Georgia Southern the game and the match.

Western Carolina had 83 digs in the match as a team almost answering the Eagles attacks by half. Each team had 175 attacks in the match.

"I think we played well defensively," Dragan said. "Our defense was a big focus this week and we had some great performances from our middle blockers."

Western Carolina will return to action Sunday taking on Davidson at 2 p.m. in the Ramsey Center. The Rondone career digs watch will be in effect.