Sept. 10

Box Score

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Catamount volleyball squad dropped a three-set match (25-14, 25-17, 25-12) with Evansville on Friday night at the Aces Dunn Hospitality Classic.

"We played our best offensive volleyball as a team this year," said Western Carolina head coach Manuel Concepcion on the team's outing against Evansville. "However, our service receive just couldn't hold up tonight and we had some bad passing rallies.

"The score tonight doesn't reflect the reality of how close the match was," said Concepcion. "We were in the match the first two sets and played well."

Senior Paloma Alvarez paced the Catamounts (3-5) with nine kills while freshman Kelcie Randazzo added a team-high 18 assists. Both Carrie Minogue and Amanda Chaparro chipped in four kills each.

"Paloma had a monster game in the attacking department," said Concepcion. "I was impressed to see her perform the way she did against such a high caliber team."

Alvarez has a team-best 2.85 kills per set through seven matches in addition to 2.96 digs per set, the second-most on the team. Randazzo and libero Morgan Cochran both recorded five digs in the contest while Chaparro added four. WCU posted eight blocks, led by freshman Leah Best's three block assists.

The Purple Aces (7-1) used a 16-kill performance by Emily Wandersee and an 11-kill effort by Brooke Maher to power the offense. Setter Ellen Sawin posted a match-high 35 assists.

"We served very well and were strategically effective, but Sawin did an outstanding job forcing their stud middle hitter Emily Wandersee, their senior leader on the court."

The first set saw the Catamounts and the Purple Aces battle back and forth before Evansville took a 17-10 advantage. WCU raced back to get the match within four (18-14) on back-to-back kills by Alvarez and a kill by Rebecca Stoltz. Evansville responded by rattling off seven unanswered points to win the set.

Trailing 7-4 to open the second set, WCU scored five straight points on kills by Alvarez and Minogue and four Evansville errors to take a 9-7 advantage. The Catamounts saw their final lead (14-13) fade away as the Purple Aces went on an 8-1 run to take a 21-15 advantage. Alvarez recorded two kills to bring WCU back, but Evansville scored the final three points of the match on kills by Maher and a service ace to win set two.

WCU had an early 4-2 lead over Evansville to start set three before falling behind 9-4. The Catamounts rallied back to get the match within two (12-10) on a block by Alvarez and Stoltz. The Catamounts limited their errors to only three during the rest of the match, but the Purple Aces used a balanced attack at the net - four different players who recorded a kill - to score eight of the final nine points of the match.

"It was kind of emotional to play against my former team," said Concepcion. "I'm glad we battled them the entire match."

The Catamounts are back in action tomorrow (Sept. 11) against Murray State at 11 a.m. (ET) before facing Loyola at 4 p.m. (ET)