Final Stats

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - The Western Carolina volleyball team ended its short two match losing streak by knocking off one of the leaders of the Southern Conference Saturday afternoon. The Catamounts traveled to Johnson City, Tenn., and took down ETSU who entered the match ranked third in the SoCon standings. The match lasted just under two and half hours and the Catamounts hung on to capture a 3-2 victory.

Freshman Devan Ingram came off the bench to lead the Catamounts in the victory as she notched 12 kills in the match to go along with a pair of blocks. Sophomore Katie O'Connor returned to form with nine kills and a team-high seven blocks.

The win improves WCU’s record to 9-18 on the season and 3-8 in conference play. The Bucs dropped to 15-8 overall and 6-4 in league action.

Senior Nicole Ford added eight kills and three blocks while sophomore Jo-Leigh Vervelde recorded another double-double with 21 assists and 17 digs. She also had four kills and three blocks in the victory. Senior setter Cristina Nazario had 15 assists and five digs while senior libero Elyssa Mulheron had a team-high 20 digs.

Rylee Milhorn led the Bucs with 23 kills and 13 digs while Briana Allmon had 10 kills.

The Buccaneers took the back-and-forth first set 25-21. WCU led early in the set but the Bucs used a late surge to take the period. The second set was tight early but WCU broke out midway through the stanza and hung on to take a 25-21 victory.

The Bucs pulled away midway through the third set to coast to a 25-16 victory and looked to be in command of the match. WCU answered in the fourth set by taking a six point lead midway through the set. ETSU came back to tie the set at 23 but a kill by O’Connor and an attack error ended the set in WCU’s favor, 25-23.

The fifth and final set was a battle. Both teams traded points up until the 11-11 but that is when the Catamounts took over. A block by freshman Alyssa Zupan and O’Connor gave WCU a 12-11 lead. ETSU then had an attack error to give the Catamounts a two point lead. Another attack error gave WCU its first match point of the night. Ingram came through on the final play as she put down a kill off a set from Vervelde to give WCU a 15-11 lead.

The Catamounts will continue their road trip next Friday as they travel to The Citadel for a 6 pm match.