FORT VALLEY, Ga. – The Catawba College men's volleyball team embarks on a two-match road trip this week, heading to Fort Valley State on Thursday and Erskine on Friday for a pair of 6 p.m. contests.

Sweeping Back to .500

- Catawba inflicted its third sweep of the season last Friday against Emmanuel at Goodman Arena, improving to 5-5 in the program's inaugural campaign

- Eli Zdonek fronted the offensive attack, smashing a team-high 13 kills while batting .520

- John Cordray leapt onto the scene with seven kills, a squad-best nine digs, two service aces and a pair of block assists

- Luke O'Neill hammered three aces for a career high, three nights after setting a new personal best of six kills against Mount Olive

Killing It

- As a team, the Catawba Indians rank 19th in the country and first among Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (IVA) members with 12.17 kills per set

- Trevor Phillips' 3.78 strikes slots 19th individually as Zdonek's 3.31 stands 44th; both marks crack the IVA's top five

- The 30 kills recorded by Zdonek at Barton on Jan. 28 continues to be one of the nation's best performances, ranking third among five-set matches; Phillips logged 24 darts in the same match to stack up ninth on the list

Best of the Newcomers

- Of the seven programs in their first season at the Division I/II level, Catawba's 5-5 record against NCAA foes is the strongest

- Jessup is 1-2 when facing NCAA teams, but has two additional wins against NAIA institutions

- Menlo (4-4) and Rockhurst (7-7) have even records overall while their ledgers dip to 3-4 and 4-7, respectively, when filtering out non-NCAA opponents

- Vanguard's 2-3 record improves to .500 without its 3-1 loss to Master's (NAIA)

- On the East Coast, Barry is 5-8 (3-8 vs. NCAA) while LeMoyne-Owen has yet to begin its inaugural season

Scouting the Wildcats

- After winning the SIAC title to earn an NCAA Tournament berth last season, Fort Valley State is off to a rocky 2-7 start this year

- The Wildcats' road has been far from easy, however, as FVSU started its slate with two matches against No. 11 Ohio State before facing No. 1 Long Beach State and No. 11 Grand Canyon during a trip to Reno, Nev. two weeks ago

- FVSU beat Barry and Emmanuel in a tri-match on Jan. 24; the squad takes on Emmanuel again on Wednesday, who was swept by both Catawba and Belmont Abbey last weekend

- Isaiah Fedd, named SIAC Offensive Player of the Week on Feb. 4, leads the Wildcats on offense with 4.25 kills per set and 11 total aces, while Taviian Martin has been an imposing presence at the net with a team-high 22 blocks

Scouting the Flying Fleet

- Erskine comes into the Friday tilt with a 4-3 record after falling to North Greenville, 3-0, in its Conference Carolinas opener on Saturday

- Prior to Saturday, Erskine reeled off three consecutive victories against first-year squad Barry and two over Division III program Warren Wilson

- The Flying Fleet boast the nation's top aces per set value at 2.78 with the country's second-ranked digs per set mark of 10.87

- Middle blocker True Bauer is averaging a team-high 4.17 kills per stanza and stacks up eighth nationally at 4.81 per-set points

- Junior setter Gino Briglio leads the Flying Fleet with 10 aces while piling on 27 digs and 185 assists (12.33 per set)

Follow Along

- Live stats for the FVSU match will be available on fvsusports.com

- Friday's match at Erskine will be broadcast on the Conference Carolinas Digital Network with real-time stats on erskinesports.com