Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina volleyball opens the second half of nonconference play on Friday as its marathon road swing to open the season continues with the Catamounts competing in the Campbell Invitational at Gore Arena in Buies Creek, N.C.
WCU begins the weekend on Friday at 3:30 p.m. against North Carolina Central before a doubleheader on tap on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. against American. The weekend closes with the host Camels at 6 p.m. and will be shown on FloSports (paid subscription required). Live stats for all three matches will be available on CatamountSports.com.
Match One: Western Carolina (1-6) vs N.C. Central (0-5
Date: Friday, Sept. 13
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Site: Gore Arena (Buies Creek, N.C.)
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter: @CatamountVB
Match Two: Western Carolina vs American (8-1)
Date: Saturday, Sept. 14
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Site: Gore Arena (Buies Creek, N.C.)
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter: @CatamountVB
Match Three: Western Carolina at Campbell (2-5)
Date: Saturday, Sept. 14
Time: 6 p.m.
Site: Gore Arena (Buies Creek, N.C.)
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Live Video: Flo Sports
Twitter: @CatamountVB
Back to Serve:
Western Carolina volleyball opens the second half of its season-opening 14-match road swing on Friday, making the in-state trip east to Buies Creek for the Campbell Invitational. WCU battles the host Camels along with N.C. Central and American over the two-day, three-match event.
Senior Bailey Hartsough collected her fourth double-double of the season to lead Western Carolina against mountain-rival UNC Asheville on Tuesday evening at the Justice Center. However, the Catamounts were not able to capitalize on a first-set victory, falling in four closely contested sets 3-1.
Hartsough led the Catamounts with 12 kills and 14 digs against the Bulldogs. Junior Janelle Blue and sophomore Zoe Zudans added eight kills apiece to the offensive attack for WCU, while sophomore Katie Boney led in the assist column with 18 and senior Sarah Janourova handed out 15. On the defensive side, Eda Yalçinkaya recorded a team-high 16 digs and junior Ali Morris finished with 14 to match the 14 recorded by Hartsough. Sophomore Logan Carr continued her strong showing on the block to begin 2024 with three blocks to lead WCU. The sophomore from Desoto, Texas has recorded multiple blocks in all seven matches this season.
Catamount Career Record Watch:
Senior
Sarah Janourova
(1,716 ast, 816 digs, 82 aces):
The Prague, Czech Republic native continues the 2024 campaign needing just 214 assists to become the 11th player in program history to surpass the 2,000 helper mark ... Janourova is looking to become the first Catamount to eclipse 2,000 career assists since Hannah Price (2017-20) who totaled 2,324 assists in her time at WCU ... Janourova finished 2023 fifth in the SoCon with 731 assists to pace the Catamounts ... She also sits within striking distance of the 1,000 dig plateau needing 184 of those to surpass that mark ... Janourova also needs just 18 service aces to eclipse 100 for her career as she looks to become the 16th WCU student-athlete to reach that mark - – chasing that benchmark along with classmate Bailey Hartsough.
Senior
Bailey Hartsough
(917 kills, 862 digs, 86 aces):
Hartsough opens her final season in Cullowhee looking to eclipse numerous milestones as she needs just 83 kills to become the 16th Catamount in program history to surpass 1,000 career kills ... She would become the first student-athlete for WCU to eclipse 1,000 kills since Merry Gebel (2018-22) finished with 1,693 to move up to the No. 2 spot in career kills ... A product of LaGrange, Ind., Hartsough currently sits with 862 career digs, needing just 138 to climb to the 1,000 dig mark for WCU ... Hartsough needs 14 service aces to eclipse 100 for her career looking to become the 16th student-athlete in Catamount volleyball history to reach that mark – chasing that benchmark along with classmate Janourova.
SCOUTING THE FIELD:
N.C. Central (0-5 in 2024) (6-18, 5-9 MEAC in 2023) – RPI 317 in 2023
Friday's opener from Buies Creek sees the Catamounts battle MEAC foe N.C. Central, who meets WCU for the fifth time in program history. It's the third straight year for the two squads to meet on the volleyball court. Western Carolina has won the last four head-to-head meetings including a 3-1 decision a season ago at Elon's tournament.
Central begins the weekend with a 0-5 mark after falling in five sets on Saturday to Elon at the Phoenix Classic, the same tournament in which WCU and NCCU met during the 2023 season. The Eagles also have battled SoCon foe UNCG along with Murray State and a pair of matches with 2024 common opponent N.C. A&T. N.C. Central finished 2023 at 6-18, including a 5-9 record in MEAC matches.
With 62 total kills, junior Makenzi Searcy leads the way offensively for the Eagles as she's eclipsed 10 kills in all five matches to begin the season including a 16-kill performance against Murray State last weekend. Junior Emmie Modlin has totaled 48 kills for the offensive attack as classmate Kamren Harper has 45 kills for the Eagles. Senior Bella Dearinger leads the Eagles with 169 assists as she's totaled 20 or more helpers in all five matches including 52 assists and 12 digs in last weekend's action against Murray State where the senior garnered MEAC Setter of the Week honors from the league. Defensively, senior Loren Johnson has a team-high 75 digs for the Eagles as sophomore Kayden Cupid has 18 blocks to lead NCCU.
The Eagles were picked sixth in the eight-team MEAC Preseason Poll under the direction of ninth-year head coach Jody Brown. NCCU also had Loren Johnson named to the league's Preseason All-Conference team.
American (8-1 in 2024) (20-11, 11-5 Patriot in 2023) – RPI 145
Saturday's first match comes from another set of Eagles with Patriot League opponent American, who meets the Catamounts for the first time since Sept. 7, 2001, in a match that saw the Eagles earn the straight-set win over WCU.
American holds an 8-1 record to begin the 2024 season as the Eagles earned wins in their first seven matches before dropping a five-set decision to Big 10 Foe Maryland. American answered the loss with a five-set win on Tuesday over Howard. American finished 2023 with a 20-11 record, including an 11-5 record in the Patriot League as the Eagles are led by Ahen Kim who's in his second year totaling a 28-12 record thus far after totaling a 59-39 record in four years at Brown.
The Eagles have been led thus far in 2024 on the offensive end of the court by freshman Zedo Yilmaz who's totaled 115 kills with six matches of 12+ kills thus far. Yilmaz also has added 17 service aces to begin the season. Adelina Berisha has added 99 kills to the offensive attack as senior Lilou Stegeman has 75 kills for American University. Senior Esma Sipahi has led the way for the Eagles with 313 assists. Yilmaz leads the defensive end with 105 digs as senior Bridget Javitch has 96 digs. Stegeman leads the Eagles with 33 blocks.
The Eagles are picked second in the Patriot League preseason poll. Sipahi was tabbed as the league's setter of the year and named to the league's preseason all-conference team.
Campbell (2-5 in 2024) (17-13, 13-5 CAA in 2023) – RPI 143
Western Carolina faces the tournament host for the third straight weekend as the Catamounts battle Campbell in Saturday's finale. WCU holds a 6-1 record head-to-head over Campbell in the school's respective histories with the Catamounts grabbing wins in the past three meetings.
Campbell holds a 2-5 record this year after falling in midweek action to East Carolina. The Camels grabbed nonconference wins over Queens and Presbyterian last weekend to get in the win column. Campbell opened the 2024 season with a trip to Baylor, Abilene Christian, and Tulsa. The Fighting Camels finished with 17 wins in the 2023 season.
The Camels have been led offensively by a trio of players with 50+ kills led by junior Gwen Wolkow with 63 kills and junior Abbie Tuyo who has 61 kills. With a team-high 106 assists, junior Maddie Converse leads the way, followed by sophomore Ashley Artura who's totaled 98 helpers. Senior Riley Dean has a team-high 87 digs followed by Wolkow with 65 assists. Hailey Heytvelt has a team-best 26 blocks.
The Camels are picked fourth in the CAA preseason poll under the direction of 12th-year head coach Greg Goral. Wolkow was named to the preseason all-conference team as Aley Clent was named to the honorable mention.
Following Saturday's finale with Campbell, the Catamounts make the trek to Georgia Southern for the final nonconference action of the 2024 season with the Bash in the Boro. Tournament play opens Friday, Sept. 20, at 10 a.m. against Winthrop. The doubleheader wraps up with battling the host Georgia Southern at 6 p.m. and facing Alabama State the following morning at 10 a.m. The matchup with the Eagles will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), and live stats will be available for all three matches 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).
