MACON, GA. – Sophomore Katie Boney dished out a career-high 30 assists to pace Western Carolina on Saturday night, but the Catamounts fell in straight sets to the Mercer Bears at Hawkins Arena.
Junior Ali Morris and sophomore Zoe Zudans led all players on Saturday night with 10 kills apiece as Morris dropped in six digs and a pair of blocks. Boney added six digs and three kills to her career-high in the assists column. On the defensive end, sophomore Eda Yalçinkaya finished with 13 digs, while freshman Halley Tang added seven. Freshman Peri Subat and junior Janelle Blue posted a pair of blocks along with Morris as Blue pushed her seasonal total to 91 rejections.
Skye Ekes and Gia Padilla led the Bears with nine kills apiece. Padilla chipped in seven digs and Ekes had three blocks. Skyler Bumpers added eight kills and three blocks to help pace Mercer. Brooke Phillips totaled a team-high 29 assists, six digs, and three aces. Meme Davis led the way on the defensive end with 21 digs as Sophia Henry joined Ekes and Bumpers with three rejections.
Mercer (18-4, 8-1 SoCon) wasted little time on Saturday getting off to a fast start in Set 1 with a 7-2 run, which forced the Catamounts to spend an early timeout. The hosts pushed its advantage to seven before WCU used a 10-5 run to cut the deficit down to two, 15-13, at the midpoint. WCU got it back to two after a small Bears run before the hosts closed the set as they started with a 7-2 run to grab the opener by the score of 25-18.
The Bears used another fast start to jump out to an early advantage in the second set before the Catamounts battled back and cut the deficit to two, 10-8, with the hosts answering with four of the following six points to take a 14-10 lead and force a WCU timeout. The Bears quickly raced the lead out to five, 19-14, before an 8-5 run cut the deficit to two, but the Catamounts were unable to make it any closer as the hosts took a 25-22 set win.
Neither team was able to gain much footing to begin the third set with six ties in the early going before an 8-2 run from the Bears made it 14-10 and forced a WCU timeout. The hosts used a 7-4 spurt to seize control as the Bears were able to hold onto the set and win 25-16 to sweep Saturday's match.
Western Carolina (7-14, 1-7 SoCon) returns home for a pair of matches beginning on Thursday, Oct. 31, against Samford before battling chromatic rival Furman the next night on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center. Both matchups with the Bulldogs and the Paladins will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), and live stats will be available on CatamountSports.com.
Keep track of everything related to Catamount volleyball and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts, @catamountvb), and Twitter (@catamounts, @catamountvb).
