Buies Creek, N.C. – Western Carolina volleyball closed out the third weekend of nonconference play using strong defensive work to defeat American in a five-setter on Saturday before battling Campbell to a four-set win on Saturday at the Campbell Invitational at Pope Convocation Center. With the two wins, WCU finished off a perfect 3-0 weekend to claim the Campbell Invitational Crown.
Following the conclusion of the tournament, senior outside hitter Bailey Hartsough, junior Janelle Blue and sophomore Logan Carr were named to the Campbell Invitational All-Tournament team. Hartsough garnered MVP honors of the tournament. Hartsough finished with a team-high 42 kills as Blue had a team-best 27 blocks and Carr finished with 31 kills for the Catamounts.
Western Carolina 3, American 2 (19-25, 25-19, 24-26, 25-22, 15-7)
Hartsough led the offensive attack with her fifth double-double of the season as she tallied 17 kills and a team-high 23 digs. Carr totaled a career-high 12 kills as the Desoto, Texas native hit .450 in the contest. Junior Ali Morris rounded out the offensive attack for the Catamounts with 11 kills and 14 digs for her fifth double-double of the year as she just missed a triple-double with nine assists and also totaled four blocks.
Senior Sarah Janourova added her sixth double-double of the season with 26 assists and 14 digs as the Prague, Czech Republic native added a pair of kills. Sophomore Katie Boney finished with 17 assists and eight digs for the Catamounts.
Junior Janelle Blue finished with a career-high 14 blocks marking the most blocks by a Catamounts since Sept. 21, 2013 when Addy George finished with 15 rejections in a match against Robert Morris. Junior Samantha Jo Mikosky finished with eight blocks and nine kills for the Catamounts as it marks a career-high in kills and her best block performance in a Catamount uniform.
Blue has the most blocks in a match for the Catamounts since Eden Punch had 11 against Liberty on Dec, 3, 2022. It's also the highest block total as a team WCU has had since that same match in 2022.
Adelina Berisha led the way for American with 23 kills and also totaled 17 digs for the Eagles. Sofia Osterdahl added 14 kills and five digs, while Zedo Yilmaz added 10 kills and 16 digs. Esma Siphai finished with a match-high 56 assists and eight digs as Bridget Javitch led the Eagles with 22 digs.
American opened the first set quickly on Saturday jumping to a 7-4 lead before the Catamounts cut the deficit to one, 9-8. The Eagles answered with five of the next eight points to force a Catamounts timeout. American kept the margin at four before WCU cut the deficit to two, 20-18 at the late stages. American scored five of the final six points to claim set one by the score of 25-19.
Western Carolina answered the bell in set two with a 9-2 run out of the gates to force an early timeout for the Eagles. The two teams went back and forth keeping the lead at eight, 14-6 before American scored five of the next seven points and made it 16-11 forcing a WCU timeout. WCU closed fast with six of the final 10 points to claim the second set by the score of 25-19.
American came out quickly in the third set with a 7-1 burst out of the gates to force an early WCU timeout. The Eagles continued to force the issue with a 10-4 spurt to stretch the lead to 12, 17-5 before the Catamounts began to chip away. WCU answered with a 13-2 run of its own to cut the deficit to one, 19-18 and force American to call a timeout. American scored four of the next five points to take a late lead with WCU scoring five of the next six points to tie the set at 24. American grabbed the third set with a 26-24 win.
The fourth set saw WCU jump to an early 5-2 lead before the Eagles cut it quickly to two, 6-4. WCU answered with another 5-2 burst to force a timeout for the Eagles. American fought back cutting the deficit to three, 14-11 before scoring eight of the next 13 points to force a timeout for the Catamounts at 19-17. The Eagles whittled it to a one-point set at 22-21 before three of the final four from WCU forced a decisive fifth set.
WCU wasted no time in the fifth set with a 9-2 burst out of the gates which led to the Eagles using both of their timeouts. American cut it to a six-point set at 13-7 but WCU scored the final two points to claim the five-set win.
Western Carolina 3, Campbell 1 (21-25, 25-7, 25-16, 25-19)
Hartsough paced the Catamounts in the finale with her sixth double-double of the season tallying 14 kills and 13 digs along with four assists. Morris added her sixth double-double of the season with 12 kills and 11 digs as she also had three service aces. Carr posted another double-figure kill performance with 11 while adding four blocks.
Blue finished with nine kills and five more blocks on the weekend. Mikosky totaled eight kills and six rejections for the Catamounts. Janourova picked up her seventh double-double with a team-high 25 assists and 16 digs as Boney added 18 assists. Yalcinkaya finished with 17 digs to pace WCU.
Emily Campe paced the Camels offensive attack with 10 kills as Aley Clent posted eight kills for the hosts. Maddie Converse finished with a team-high 17 assists as Ashley Artura had 16 helpers and 11 digs for the Camels. Riley Dean led the Campbell defensive attack with 18 digs in the match.
The two teams traded spurts out of the gates with four early ties before six of the next nine from the hosts made it 12-9 in the opening set. WCU pushed back with five of the next eight before a 3-0 burst forced a WCU timeout. Campbell stretched the lead to seven, 23-16 with a 5-2 burst before the Catamounts answered with five of the next six before the Camels claimed set one by the score of 25-21.
The Catamounts opened the second set fast with a 10-4 run out of the gates to force an early timeout for the hosts in the set. The Camels got the deficit to six quickly out of the break before WCU scored 14 of the final 16 points to split the first two sets with the Camels.
After a pair of early ties, the Camels pushed to a 8-7 lead which was quickly thwarted by a 5-0 burst from the Catamounts to force a Campbell timeout at 12-8 WCU. The guests continued to keep the pressure on the Camels with a 7-2 run to force a second timeout. Following five straight from Campbell, WCU scored five of the final six points to claim the set 25-16 and a 2-1 lead in Saturday's match.
WCU opened quickly in the set with an 8-2 burst out of the gates to force an early Camels timeout. The two teams went back and forth with the hosts whittling the deficit to seven, 15-8 halfway thru the set. The Catamounts pushed eight of the next 13 points across to keep the set in control before the Camels pushed one last burst with five unanswered before the final two points led WCU to a 25-19 win and a four-set winner.
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.
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