Salisbury, N.C. ---- After a spirited first set, the Catawba College women's volleyball team was unable to keep pace with the visiting Wingate Bulldogs, dropping to 2-3 on the year as the 19th ranked visitors took the win in a 3-0 contest at Goodman Area on Tuesday night.
TEAM STATS
- Wingate had nearly double the kills as Catawba, with 47 to the home side's 24. Those 47 kills came at a .330 clip, with Catawba at .050
- 44 of Wingate's kills were assisted, as Catawba setters served up 20 of their own
- Catawba had 30 total errors on the night, while Wingate had 25
- Wingate blockers tallied eight total rejections to Catawba's four
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
- Katrina Misra led the way for Catawba with nine kills at a .333 rate, her second straight game reaching nine tallies. Mailie Chretien was second on the team with five kills
- Mya Benfield set up 10 assists on the night, good for half of Catawba's total. Dara Kane and Siena Roethler each had four, tying for second.
- Riley Hill again led the way defensively with nine digs, followed by Kary Hales' six
- Natalie Rehm and Lauren Patrick had a pair of block-assists on the night
HOW IT HAPPENED
FIRST SET
- Catawba challenged the Bulldogs from the start, taking a two-to-zero lead through Kane and Hill and then a four-to-three lead as Jordan Danielson notched a pair of kills
- Each side answered the other, with a series of kills and errors by both sides keeping them either tied or within one until a six-to-one run from Wingate spurred on by three straight errors put the Bulldogs up twelve to eight
- But a six-to-two Catawba run brought both teams level again at 14, as Chretien racked up an ace and a kill and Misra capped off the run with a kill as well
- Coming out of a Wingate timeout, Catawba continued to battle for the lead and would keep the score knotted up all the way to 18-all, but would never regain the lead
- The Bulldogs closed the first set on a seven-to-two run, buoyed by three straight Catawba errors and capped off by a pair of kills
SECOND SET
- Looking to even things up, Catawba again came out fighting in the second set, with both sides starting off deadlocked at eight-all. Misra lead the effort with a pair of kills and an ace, as the home side also forced four Wingate errors
- However, the home side suffered a serious blow when setter Dara Kane was forced to leave the game with an injury after the opening point
- A six-to-two Wingate run would quickly put the Bulldogs on the front foot, and despite a Catawba timeout a streak of seven straight Wingate points would blow the set open, 19-10
- Two straight kills from Kelcie Love and Mya Benfield out of another timeout looked to spark something for Catawba, only to be answered by two straight points from Wingate to keep the Bulldogs ahead 21-12
- While Catawba wasn't done, it was too little, too late; the Bulldogs would close out the set 25-16, outscoring Catawba 17-8 after being knotted up at eight apiece.
THIRD SET
- Once again, Catawba would keep pace early, with a kill and block from Lauren Patrick knotting the set up a 5-5
- But that would be the closest that the decisive set would get, with a four-to-zero run putting Wingate up nine-to-five. Two straight errors threatened to derail the run as Catawba pulled back to within two, but Wingate held firm
- The lead would quickly snowball, and after Catawba pulled to within two at nine-to-seven Wingate would close the set on a decisive 16-3 run to put the game away
UP NEXT
- Catawba is back in action on Friday, as they travel to South Carolina to take on the Anderson Trojans at 7 p.m.
