Charleston, W.V. ---- The Catawba College women's volleyball team battled on the road against the Charleston Golden Eagles, but fell short in a 3-0 contest to drop to 3-6 on the year after nearly taking the opening set.
TEAM STATS
- Charleston led the way with 44 kills at a rate of .203 to Catawba's 28, at a .107 clip
- 40 of the 44 Golden Eagles' kills were assisted, with Catawba setters assisting on 27 of 28
- Catawba had an impressive showing around the net, with 18 blocks blocks to Charleston's eight
- Catawba players had 31 errors on the night, with Charleston's squad committing 32
- Charleston also led defensively with 61 digs to Catawba's 47
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
- Mailie Chretien led Catawba in kills with 12, tying for second place overall in the match and just one kill away from tying for first. Katrina Misra was second for the away side with seven
- Siena Roethler served up a season and personal high 26 assists, which led all players and was seven more than the next highest total
- Katie Clark paced Catawba in total blocks, 3.0 to lead all players. Chretien was second overall with 2.0, and Jordan Danielson tied for third overall with 1.5
- Riley Hill led all players with 14 digs, with Danielson and Chretien chipping in with eight apiece
HOW IT HAPPENED
FIRST SET
- Catawba jumped out to a 4-0 start, with a block, kill, and service ace creating a balanced run
- Charleston recovered to knot the set up at 5-5 with a run of their own in response, spurred by a trio of Catawba attack errors
- A pair of Chretien kills and another from Danielson put Catawba back on the front foot, though a 5-1 Charleston run quickly changed momentum and made it 11-9, Golden Eagles
- It would a similar story as the first set went on, with Catawba pulling ahead 13-11 with four straight points and Charleston answering with four of their own
- As Charleston pulled ahead 15-13, Chretien and Jordan Danielson would again help Catawba to regain the lead, helped by a block from Natalie Rehm and Roethler to make it 19-18, Catawba
- A series of errors for both sides set the stage for a climactic finish with the set knotted up at 23-23, but it would be Charleston getting a clutch pair of kills courtesy of Emma Shepherd and Riley Hoff to escape with the first set, 25-23
SECOND SET
- This time, it would be Charleston jumping out to an early lead at 6-2 thanks to multiple errors and forcing a Catawba timeout. But that proved to be a momentum changer, as Catawba emerged from the timeout to blitz Charleston 6-1, with Chretien racking up a pair of kills and Misra and Roethler also getting in on the action
- A 5-2 Charleston run halted Catawba's surge, with Hoff scoring back-to-back kills as four of them forced another Catawba timeout, trailing 10-13
- A 4-2 Catawba run out of the timeout looked like it might bring the away side back into the set, only for a three straight Charleston points to make it a four-point game
- From there, the two sides traded points, with Charleston leading by three at the least and five at the most the rest of the way. They would take the second set 25-20, with Pia Selke scoring two of four Golden Eagle kills to close it out
THIRD SET
- Catawba jumped out to a 4-2 lead spurred on by a stretch of Charleston errors, but that would prove to be the most they would lead by during the set as the Golden Eagles battled back and took a two point lead of their own, 7-5
- Both sides would trade points for the majority of the set, with neither able to string together a run larger than two points as the set rolled on at 16-16
- That would be where Charleston would break the set open, surging ahead on a 7-2 run to make it 23-18 and closing the game on a 9-3 streak to take the decisive third set 25-19
UP NEXT
- Catawba is back in action on Tuesday, Sept. 26 as they welcome the Carson-Newman Eagles to Goodman Arena at 6 p.m.
