GREENSBORO, N.C. – Western Carolina volleyball closed out the 2023 regular season in dominating fashion on Saturday night with a sweep of UNCG at Fleming Gymnasium. The Catamounts won the match by the scores of 25-21, 25-16, 25-8 over the host Spartans.
Bailey Hartsough led the offensive attack on Saturday with 15 kills, hitting .308 and adding four assists and four digs to her stat line. Ali Morris filled the stat sheet with eight kills, 14 digs, four assists, and three service aces. Katie Boney led WCU with 12 assists while also tallying a team-high five aces in the straight sets win.
Sarah Janourova finished off her team-best 15th double-double of the season, totaling 10 assists and 11 digs. Eda Yalcinkaya totaled 12 digs and a pair of aces in the regular season finale as Logan Carr finished with a team-high six blocks. Freshman Zoe Zudans tallied her first three collegiate kills in the winning effort.
Aylin Baran led the Spartans on the offensive end with seven kills in the contest. Izora Gragg and Mallory Meers led UNCG with seven assists apiece. Avery Sziksai had 11 digs to pace the Spartans.
The 13 service aces by WCU on Saturday night ties a season-high for a single match in 2023 set last weekend in a three-set sweep of Chattanooga. WCU also finished with 10 blocks on the defensive end for the sixth time in 2023 and improved to 5-1 on the season when hitting the 10-block mark.
Western Carolina (10-17, 7-9 SoCon) opened quickly in the first set, jumping out to a 7-3 edge in the match's early stages. The Spartans cut the deficit to one, 7-6, before a 10-4 spurt from the Catamounts made it 17-10 at the midpoint of the opening set. UNCG (1-26, 0-16 SoCon) pushed back in the set with a 9-2 burst to even the score up and force a Catamounts timeout. After a quick back-and-forth over the following few points, WCU finished the set with a 5-1 burst to claim the set 25-21.
The second set's opening featured three early ties before a 7-4 WCU spurt allowed the guests to stretch the lead to 12-9. The two teams went back and forth to the media break at 15-12 before WCU scored seven unanswered points to stretch the lead to 22-12. UNCG cut the lead to seven before a pair of late points gave the Catamounts a 25-16 win in the second set.
WCU quickly seized control in the third set, racing out to a 14-3 lead, forcing the Spartans to use both of their timeouts. The Catamounts controlled the set throughout, ultimately claiming a 25-8 decision and a season sweep of UNCG.
Western Carolina will begin the 2023 SoCon Championship on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. when the Catamounts will battle host Wofford at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.
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