SALISBURY, N.C. — The Catawba College women's volleyball team hosts matches on back-to-back days this weekend, squaring off with Mars Hill on Friday before welcoming Tusculum for a Saturday matinee at Goodman Arena.
Tuesday at Wingate
- The Catawba Indians dropped its midweek clash at 20th-ranked Wingate in three sets
- The visitors did not go down without a fight, however, as Catawba won three of the first four points in the second and third sets
- Lillie Kate Rogers remained effective with six kills, eight digs and a service ace
Solid on Home Court
- Catawba holds a 3-3 record on home floor with a 12-11 lead in set scoring
- The blue and white have taken a set in five of its six home tilts including the Sept. 16 matchup with 20th-ranked Wingate in which they won the opener, 26-24
- Catawba is posting better marks than its opponents hitting-wise with a 284-269 difference in kills while batting .194 to opposition's .191
- Martina Foster has been phenomenal all-around at Goodman Arena this season, boasting a .294 hitting percentage with 39 kills and just nine errors while totaling eight blocks and five aces
All-Time Series
- Friday will be the 97th meeting between Catawba and Mars Hill; it is the program's third-longest series behind Wingate (105 meetings) and Lenoir-Rhyne (103)
- Catawba has gone 58-38 against the Lions despite falling to MHU twice – on back-to-back days – last season
- The series between Catawba and Tusculum is considerably tighter, favoring the Pioneers by a narrow 30-27 margin
- TU has won each of the squad's last five visits to Goodman Arena, but had to go a full five sets in four of those meetings
Scouting the Lions
- Mars Hill is hovering around the .500 mark with a 7-6 record – 4-4 in conference – after beating Coker and Emory & Henry in the past seven days to snap a four-match skid
- Against common opponents, the Lions defeated both Coker and UVA Wise while the Catawba Indians dropped those same matchups in five sets apiece
- MHU ranks 13th nationally with 18.29 digs per set thanks to libero Laela Jimenez averaging more than five stops per frame
- Ioana Poenaru is contributing in multiple facets for the Lions, leading all hitters with 149 kills, 17 aces and 161 digs; fellow junior Skylar Ogden is terrorizing opponents at the net with a team-high 40 blocks
Scouting the Pioneers
- It was just a week ago when Catawba traveled to Greeneville, Tenn., and suffered their fifth consecutive sweeping loss in Pioneer territory
- While MHU is a match above .500, TU is a match below at 7-8 overall; however, the Pioneers are 5-4 in SAC play after getting help from a four-match winning streak that got snapped on Tuesday at Carson-Newman
- TU boasts two of the league's finest freshman pins in Mackenzie Land (124 kills) and Grace VanZwieten (88 kills, .218 hitting pct.) who fronted the attack against Catawba last week
- Karris Oller has been key in the middle as the top Pioneer blocker at 25 stops with a .283 hitting clip offensively
Follow Along
- All South Atlantic Conference are streamed live on FloCollege
- Live stats for both matches will be available on CatawbaAthletics.com
