Cullowhee, N.C. – Following six-straight road matches and playing away from Cullowhee for 12 of the season's first 13 matches, Western Carolina volleyball opens up a four-match homestand this weekend with a pair of Southern Conference foes. Mountain-rival East Tennessee State visits on Friday evening before the Catamounts welcome UNCG the next night to Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.
Friday's matchup with the Buccaneers is slated for a 6 p.m. first serve and is a "Beat the Bucs" Blackout, with fans encouraged to wear their black WCU gear to the game to match the team. Saturday's action is scheduled for 5 p.m. and has been dubbed "Kids at the Court" & "Neon Night." Saturday's match will feature Sweet Caroline's Food truck, along with Catamount Dining, providing hot food for the match.
Admission this weekend – and for all home matches throughout the 2025 season – is free of charge, courtesy of First Bank. Both matches with the Bucs and the Spartans are scheduled for ESPN+ (paid subscription required) and will feature live stats available online at CatamountSports.com.
MATCH #1 PREVIEW: ETSU (8-5, 2-0 SoCon) at Western Carolina (5-8, 1-1 SoCon)
Date: Friday, Oct. 3, 2025
Time: 6 p.m.
Site: Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center (Cullowhee, N.C.)
Promotion: Beat the Bucs Blackout
Live Video: ESPN+ (paid subscription required)
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter: @CatamountVB
MATCH #2 PREVIEW: UNCG (8-5, 1-1 SoCon) vs Western Carolina
Date: Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025
Time: 5 p.m.
Site: Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center (Cullowhee, N.C.)
Promotion: Kids at the Court & Neon Night
Live Video: ESPN+ (paid subscription required)
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter: @CatamountVB
From the Service Line:
Coming off a split opening weekend in Southern Conference play, Western Carolina returns home for the first time in nearly a month to open a four-match homestand, beginning with its mountain rival, ETSU. The Catamounts started SoCon play with a three-set triumph against The Citadel, their seventh straight 1-0 start in conference play. WCU then suffered a straight-set defeat at the hands of the preseason favorite Wofford.
The Catamounts were led by the newly minted three-time SoCon Setter of the Week, junior Katie Boney. The Brookhaven, Ga. native posted 58 assists and 25 digs with six kills and a solo block as she claimed her team-best fifth and sixth double-doubles of the season.
The offense was led by sophomore middle blocker Courtney Graham, who totaled 16 kills, including a career-high 11 against the Bulldogs, adding five blocks, including four solo, in the league-opener against The Citadel. Senior middle blocker/right side Janelle Blue and junior outside hitter Zoe Zudans both totaled 12 kills apiece, followed by freshman outside hitter Samantha Kranzler with 10 and classmate and middle blocker Tatum Sharp with nine kills.
On the defensive side of the stat sheet, Boney led the way with 25 digs, followed by junior Eda Yalçinkaya with 20 digs, as 13 of those came in the win over The Citadel. The Istanbul, Turkey native also picked up five assists in the victory. Kranzler added 19 digs to the squad's defensive stat line.
Zudans paces the Catamount offense with 143 kills, which ranks the Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. native eighth in kills and is seventh in kills/set at 3.18. Boney maintains the top spot in assists in the league with 459, while also holding the top spot in assists/set at 9.98. Holding the top spot for WCU, Graham begins the weekend tied for third in blocks with 55 stops and is third in rejections per set at 1.2. Yalçinkaya begins the month of October sixth in the league with 185 digs as one of six players with 4+ digs per set at 4.02.
Catamount Career Record Watch:
Juniors Katie Boney and Eda Yalçinkaya both enter their third seasons in Cullowhee, looking to reach some statistical milestones. Both Boney and Yalçinkaya can achieve career benchmarks during the 2025 season.
Junior Katie Boney (1,284 Assists): The Brookhaven, Ga., native continued her tremendous start to the season with 13 straight matches, surpassing 22 assists. Boney has also had 30+ helpers in eight matches with six double-doubles on the year. She became the 17th player in program history to eclipse the 1,000 career assists mark during a thrilling five-set reverse sweep of Bradley (Sept. 6).
Boney sits at the top of the Southern Conference in assists with 459 helpers and is averaging 9.98 assists per set. She has earned three SoCon Setter of the Week honors throughout the 2025 season, with the most recent coming this week after the opening SoCon weekend. She looks to continue building off a solid sophomore campaign with a team-high 543 assists, which ranked ninth in the SoCon and is fourth among returning student-athletes in the league in terms of assists.
Junior Eda Yalçinkaya (913 Digs): WCU's third-year libero began the 2025 season with a team-high 185 digs, ranking her sixth in the SoCon following the opening weekend of league action. She enters the weekend in Cullowhee needing just 87 digs to reach the 1,000-dig plateau for her career. The Istanbul, Turkey native came off her sophomore season, where she totaled 404 digs to lead the squad and ranks fifth among returners for WCU on the defensive end of the court.
About ETSU (8-5, 2-0 in the SoCon in 2025 – 19-11, 10-6 SoCon in 2024) – 2024 RPI 130
ETSU enters the second weekend of SoCon action on a five-match win streak after back-to-back league wins over Chattanooga in five before sweeping Mercer. ETSU has won six of the last seven meetings in the head-to-head battle, claiming a pair of 3-0 wins in both matches in 2024. Western Carolina looks to buck the recent trend that has seen ETSU take three of the last four matchups in Cullowhee, as the all-time series sits at 47-47.
Among the current ETSU (8-5, 2-0 SoCon) five-match win streak is a four-set win over ACC foe Virginia Tech two weeks ago. The Bucs have played a challenging nonconference slate of Power Four opponents, facing South Carolina, Clemson, and the Hokies. ETSU went 19-11 during the 2024 campaign and held a 10-6 league mark before falling to the two-seed and eventual tournament champion Wofford in the SoCon semifinals.
Sophomore Mikayla Bays leads the Bucs offensively, totaling a team-high 190 kills, including 10 matches in double figures, with a pair of matches tallying 24 kills, with three double-doubles. Bays has also garnered a SoCon Offensive Player of the Week honor already in 2025. Senior Brianna Cantrell has 93 kills, followed by classmate Whitley Rammel with 92 kills on the offensive end.
Freshman Bailey Gohlke leads ETSU in the assist column with 235 helpers, sixth in the league, as she's recorded four double-doubles. Junior Alex Kreutzmann is tied for 10th with 213 assists, having already recorded five matches with 21 or more assists in 2025. On the defensive end, junior Melanie Morris leads ETSU with 130 digs, followed by Bays with 105 and Cantrell with 97. Rammel ranks sixth in the league with a team-best 53 rejections.
The Bucs were tabbed third in the SoCon Preseason Coaches' Poll, led by Lindsay Devine, who's in her 18th season in Johnson City, beginning her second stint with the Bucs this season after a 16-year tenure that began in the 2003 season. Devine has earned three SoCon Coach of the Year honors, with the most recent honor coming a season ago. Cantrell and Rammel both earned preseason All-Southern Conference honors as the Bucs joined Wofford as one of two squads with multiple all-conference representatives.
About UNCG (8-5, 1-1 in SoCon in 2025 – 8-22, 2-14 in SoCon in 2024) – 2024 RPI 268
In-state league rival UNCG returns to the Ramsey Center on Saturday evening as the Catamounts look to continue their strong work against the Spartans. WCU has won five of the past seven matches over UNCG in straight sets, leading the squad to a 14-12 lead in the all-time series in Cullowhee and a 36-29 advantage overall in the head-to-head series with the Spartans.
UNCG is 8-5 on the year and sits at 1-1 in the SoCon after defeating Samford in straight sets, which was preceded by a four-set loss to Furman. Three common opponents between WCU and UNCG include Queens, Charlotte, and UNC Asheville, with the Spartans holding a 2-1 record compared to a 1-2 mark for the Catamounts. UNCG finished 2024 with an 8-22 record, falling to eventual runner-up Mercer in three sets during the quarterfinals of the SoCon tournament.
UNCG has been led offensively by reigning SoCon Freshman of the Year Allie Sweet, who has a SoCon-leading 228 kills and a conference-best 4.47 kills per set. She is one of only two players in the league to average over four kills per set to date. Sweet has totaled seven double-doubles on the season, with three matches over 20 kills thus far in 2025.
Senior McKenna Timmerman has 114 kills for the Spartans, while graduate student Robin Rosser has totaled 103 kills for UNCG.
Northwestern State transfer Gabby Seeds leads the Spartans and sits third in the SoCon with 364 assists, as she's had four matches with 40 or more helpers, followed by junior Izora Gragg with 143 assists and a pair of double-doubles for UNCG. On defense, sophomore Chloe Nussbaum leads the Spartans with 252 digs, followed by Sweet, who tallies 133 digs. Freshman Siena Smiejek has a team-best 43 blocks, having already recorded four matches with five or more blocks in 2025.
Under the direction of third-year head coach Felicia Turner, the Spartans were picked in a tie for fifth with Chattanooga in the SoCon Preseason poll, led by Sweet, who garnered Preseason All-SoCon honors.
What's Next for the Catamounts:
Following Saturday's matchup with the Spartans, Western Carolina returns to the Ramsey Center on Thursday, Oct. 9, to battle Chattanooga before welcoming Samford the following night for SoCon action as part of the four-match homestand. Both matches are slated for a 6 p.m. first serve from Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.
Thursday's meeting with the Mocs will serve as a "Dig Pink" match, along with Back The Cats, while Friday's match with the Bulldogs will be Alumni Night. Both matches with the Mocs and the Bulldogs are scheduled for ESPN+ (a paid subscription is required), and both contests will feature live stats 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).
