Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Western Carolina University

Western Carolina
The Official Home of Catamount Athletics

Schedule

Full
VB Preview vs The Citadel & Wofford

Women's Volleyball Greg Hartlage, Director of Media Relations

Volleyball Begins Second Half of SoCon with Terriers, Bulldogs

WCU hosts Wofford and The Citadel this week in #CatamountCountry

Cullowhee, N.C. – Returning home for the final time in October, Western Carolina volleyball begins the second half of Southern Conference play this week. The Catamounts open with a visit from Wofford on Thursday night before battling The Citadel on Friday evening on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.
 
Thursday's matchup with the Terriers is slated for a 6 p.m. first serve and has been dubbed a "Purple Out," with all Catamount fans encouraged to wear their purple WCU gear to the match. Thursday's match against Wofford is also "Volley-wood Night." Friday's action with the Bulldogs is also scheduled to start at 6 p.m. and is the HalloWHEEn night to close out the month of October in Cullowhee, with fans encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes to the contest.
 
Admission for each of WCU's home matches throughout the 2025 season is free of charge, courtesy of First Bank. Both matchups against the Terriers and Bulldogs are scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), and will feature live stats available online at CatamountSports.com.
 
MATCH #1 PREVIEW
Wofford (9-10, 5-3 SoCon) vs Western Carolina (6-13, 2-6 SoCon)
Date: Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025
Time: 6 p.m.
Site: Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center (Cullowhee, N.C.)
Live Video: ESPN+
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter: @CatamountVB
 
MATCH #2 PREVIEW
The Citadel (0-18, 0-8 SoCon) vs Western Carolina
Date: Friday, Oct. 24, 2025
Time: 6 p.m.
Site: Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center (Cullowhee, N.C.)
Live Video: ESPN+
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter: @CatamountVB
 
From the Service Line:
The Catamounts turn the page to the second half of Southern Conference play on Thursday night after dropping back-to-back road bouts at Mercer and Furman last time out. In its first half of the conference slate, WCU tallied wins over UNCG and The Citadel, Friday's opposition.
 
With 13 kills apiece, the freshman tandem of Abbie Willis and Tatum Sharp led the offensive attack, including Willis picking up 10 kills on Saturday against the Paladins. Junior Zoe Zudans, sophomore Courtney Graham, and senior Janelle Blue each finished with 10 kills for the Catamounts. Junior Katie Boney had 51 helpers, along with 11 digs and a pair of kills for WCU, collecting her team-best eighth double-double on Saturday against Furman.
 
Junior Eda Yalçinkaya led the way with 30 digs, including eclipsing the 1,000 career dig plateau on Saturday afternoon. Sophomore Halley Tang totaled 18 digs, followed by 11 from Boney over the weekend. Graham led the Catamounts on the block with eight stops, followed by five from Blue and Sharp.
 
On the season, Zudans maintains the Catamount offense's top spot with 199 kills, eighth in the SoCon and ninth in the league in kills per set (3.02). Boney continues to maintain her stranglehold on the top spot in assists in the league with 705, the lone player in the SoCon with more than 700 helpers, while also holding the top spot in assists per set (10.37). Graham enters the week fourth in blocks with 80 stops, one of four in the league to eclipse 80 rejections, and is third in blocks per set at 1.18. Yalçinkaya is sixth in the league with 279 digs as one of six players with at least four digs per set (4.1).
 
As a team, WCU enters the two weekly matches ranked fourth in the league in kills per set (12.49), fifth in digs (1048), and fourth in assists per set (11.79). In conference play, WCU is fourth in kills per set (12.82) and fifth in digs (450). Individually, Boney is second in the conference in assists (304) and holds the top spot in assists per set (10.86). Yalçinkaya is sixth in conference play with 114 digs, one of seven in the league with 100+ digs.
 
Catamount Career Record Watch:
Junior Katie Boney (1,530 assists): The Brookhaven, Ga., native has handed out 22 or more assists in 19 straight matches, including a career-high with 64 helpers two weeks ago against Chattanooga. Boney has also eclipsed 30 helpers 11 times with eight 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). With her 58 assists against UNCG, Boney moved past Judy Green (1982-83) for 15th in program history for career assists and now has 1,530 and a conference-high 705 on the season.
 
Junior Eda Yalçinkaya (1,007 digs): WCU's third-year libero has a team-high 279 digs, ranking her sixth in the SoCon. On Saturday against Furman, she eclipsed 1,000 career digs, bringing her total to 1,007 in her career with the Purple & Gold. She 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 Wofford (9-10, 5-3 SoCon) – RPI 168 (FIRST MATCH RECAP in Spartanburg)
Coming off back-to-back losses, preseason favorite Wofford opens the second half on Thursday night from Cullowhee. The Terriers dropped straight-set decisions to both UNCG and ETSU, the lone unbeaten in the SoCon after the midpoint of the league slate. The Terriers have been challenged in 2025, playing seven top 100 RPI squads throughout their opening 19 matches, including five power four teams in nonconference play.
 
The Terriers were 23-9 in 2024, including a 12-4 mark in SoCon action. Wofford fell to Baylor in the 2024 NCAA Tournament after defeating Mercer to earn its second straight NCAA appearance. They are led by Lynze Roos, who is in her 11th season at the helm in Spartanburg, having recorded 182 wins during her time with Wofford.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Chloe Smith leads the Terriers with 223 kills, ranking in a tie for sixth in the SoCon. Smith has tallied seven double-doubles, including her 11 kills and 10 digs in a conference matchup with UNCG. Sophomore middle blocker Bradley Brown has 149 kills, including a 16-kill, .842 hitting performance in the first matchup with the Catamounts. Junior middle blocker/right side Natalie Arnold has 144 kills, followed by senior middle blocker Annemarie Rakoski with 109 kills.
 
Junior Taylor Pecht has a team-high 350 assists, eighth in the SoCon, followed by sophomore Maddy Frazier with 286 helpers. The duo has totaled six double-doubles, with Pecht recording five of those six on the year. Frazier has a team-high 25 service aces, followed by junior libero Laney Klika with 19 aces and Smith with 15 aces on the season.
 
On the defensive end, Klika is one of four players in the SoCon with over 300 digs, posting 26 or more digs four times with double-digit digs in all but two matches for the Terriers in 2025. Klika sits atop the league with 4.85 digs per set and is among the top 20 in the nation in the category.

On the blocking side, senior Annmarie Rakoski is third in the SoCon with 81 blocks, averaging the second-highest 1.23 blocks per set, and has garnered three SoCon Defensive Player of the Week honors, as the Terriers have four defensive honors from the league, with Klika garnering the other award.
 
WCU holds a tight 28-27 advantage in the all-time series, with a 19-7 edge in contests held in Cullowhee. The Catamounts look to snap a six-game slide in the all-time series with only two wins in the series since the COVID spring season for Western Carolina.

About The Citadel (0-18, 0-8 SoCon) – RPI 320 (FIRST MATCH RECAP in Charleston)
The Citadel enters play on Friday looking for its first win of the 2025 season following back-to-back straight-set defeats against Samford and Chattanooga last weekend.
 
The Citadel finished with a 15-14 record in 2024, including an 8-8 mark in the SoCon. The Bulldogs fell in the semifinals to the regular-season champion, Mercer. The Bulldogs are led by 10th-year head coach Dave Zelenock, who was named SoCon Coach of the Year following the 2023 season, where The Citadel earned a program-record 27 wins.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Rachel Reininger leads the Bulldogs' offensive attack with a team-high 150 kills as she's tallied a pair of double-doubles, with her most recent coming in SoCon play against UNCG (27 kills, 16 digs). Sophomore middle blocker Luci Lippelgoos has 84 kills for The Citadel thus far in 2025, while freshman Gwen Berry tallied 82 kills for the Bulldogs.
 
Sophomore Greta Pleuss leads the Bulldogs with 363 helpers, as she's tallied a pair of double-doubles coming against UNC Asheville (24 A, 14 D) and Gardner-Webb (28 A, 18 D). Reininger has a team-best 13 service aces, while Pleuss and junior libero Mia Watson each have seven aces for The Citadel.
 
Sophomore libero Jess Martin leads the way for the Bulldogs with 145 digs, followed by Reininger with 107 and Watson with 101 digs. Lippelgoos leads the block for the Bulldogs with 57 rejections.
 
WCU holds a 39-12 edge in the all-time series, including a 20-4 mark in matches contested in Cullowhee. With a win on Friday, it would mark the first season sweep for either team since 2022, as the Catamounts earned a three and four-set win during that campaign.
 
What's Next for the Catamounts:
Following Friday's action in Cullowhee, Western Carolina opens a four-match road swing with a Halloween night matchup in the Gate City against UNCG before traveling to Johnson City the next night to battle mountain-rival ETSU. Friday's matchup in Greensboro is slated for a 6 p.m. start, followed by a 3 p.m. first serve against the Bucs.

Both matches with the Spartans and Bucs are scheduled for ESPN+ (paid subscription 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).
 
 
Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Janelle Blue

#14 Janelle Blue

MB/RS
5' 11"
Senior
Katie Boney

#18 Katie Boney

S
6' 0"
Junior
Courtney Graham

#5 Courtney Graham

MB
6' 1"
Sophomore
Halley Tang

#2 Halley Tang

L
5' 7"
Sophomore
Eda Yalçinkaya

#20 Eda Yalçinkaya

L
5' 4"
Junior
Zoe Zudans

#22 Zoe Zudans

OH
6' 0"
Junior
Abbie Willis

#11 Abbie Willis

OH
6' 2"
Freshman
Tatum Sharp

#12 Tatum Sharp

MB
6' 2"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Janelle Blue

#14 Janelle Blue

5' 11"
Senior
MB/RS
Katie Boney

#18 Katie Boney

6' 0"
Junior
S
Courtney Graham

#5 Courtney Graham

6' 1"
Sophomore
MB
Halley Tang

#2 Halley Tang

5' 7"
Sophomore
L
Eda Yalçinkaya

#20 Eda Yalçinkaya

5' 4"
Junior
L
Zoe Zudans

#22 Zoe Zudans

6' 0"
Junior
OH
Abbie Willis

#11 Abbie Willis

6' 2"
Freshman
OH
Tatum Sharp

#12 Tatum Sharp

6' 2"
Freshman
MB