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  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_2008-09-26[10-27]_Vol74_No03[04]_08

September 26, 2008 WESTERN CAROLINIAN Page 8 SPORTS Junior Katie Hennessey (#10) is all smiles as she celebrates with her teammates in Westerns first volleyball win since last year in the Catamount Clash. WESTERN CLAIMS FIRST VOLLEYBALL WIN IN | ~ CATAMOUNT CLASH By Justin Caudell Sports Editor The Lady Catamounts snapped a-12 game losing streak dating back to last year when they hosted their first volleyball tournament, the Catamount Clash, on Sept. 19 and 20. Western clinched their first _ win of the season, and first since Noy. 6, 2007 against Furman, when they defeated Norfolk State 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-21) in their open- ing match of the Catamount Clash. The Lady Catamounts had strong leads in all three games and were able to hold off late rallies by the Spar- tans. WCU had a .217 attack percentage in the victory and only 13 errors in 129 attempts, compared to Nor- folks 24. Freshmen Carrie Minogue and Rebecca Stoltz backed the Lady Catamounts with 11 kills in the match, while junior setter Katie Hen- nessey picked up the eighth double-double of her career with 35 assists and 14 digs. Junior Liz Rondone added 20 digs in the contest. J kept telling the team if we could break .200 in attack percentage, we would start winning matches, said head volleyball coach Stephanie Dragan. We had some great performances defensively which allowed our middles __ to get the ball. Western tried to win back- to-back with a game against Arkansas State a few hours atier the Norfolk contest, but the Lady Catamounts nar- rowly lost three games to fall in the match overall 3-0 (23- 25, 20-25, 21-25). Stoltz and junior Amanda Kerr led the WCU attack in the loss with six kills each. Rondone had 14 digs. The Lady Catamounts rebounded from the setback against Arkansas State on Sept. 20 with a win against Presbyterian College in the final day of the Catamount Clash, defeating the Blue Hose 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-20). Western dominated throughout the game, knotch- ing 43 team kills and 103 at- tacks with a .320 attack per- centage. Kerr led the team with 12 kills and also had 11 digs for her first career double-dou- ble. Freshman Brittany Lysik also notched a double-double with 10 kills and 14 digs. Mi- nogue had 8 kills. T am so proud of our team, going 2-2, said Dra- gan. The team had a goal to come into todays game with some intensity and strike ear- ly and they did that. In the week following the Catamount Clash, the Lady Catamounts won a five-game battle against Elon for their first Southern Conference victory, taking down the Phoenix on Sept. 28 in Cul- lowhee 3-2 (25-16, 25-13, 17-25, 18-25, 15-13). WCU took a 2-0 game lead in the match, but simple mis- takes forced five sets. Kerr led the club in kills with 14 against Elon. Minogue added 11 and also had three service aces. Setter Hennessey had a double-double with 34 assists and 13 digs. While Rondone added 22 digs in the win. This is my first victory over Elon in my coaching career at Western Caroli- na, said Dragan. We have come close, with the last two matches going in five, but it is good to finally come out on top. | am so proud of the players. They dug down deep in that fifth game and just re- fused to lose. The SoCon victory over Elon was. preceded by a loss to UNC Greensboro on Sept. 27 in the Lady Catamounts conference opener. The team fell 3-2 (25-14, 15-25, 25-21, 12-25, 11-15). After winning three of their past five matches, Western is presently 3-12 on the season, 1-1 in conference. WCU had two road contests over the weekend, a conference game at Chattanooga on Oct. 4, and aSoCon match at Samford on Oct. 5. They are scheduled to face Furman today, Oct. 8. BOSSA EGE ERE EERE EEE ROR HARD DORA ORHRARORAARAREAA RADDA AA ED EDO OOO OH SRORSSHHEHS ROSES SEES SOS InterestedinWCU's : Student Television Come to TV62'sinformational meetings! Wednesday, 7PM Student Media Center Conference Room. Contact: 227-3644 eo CHLOE EAREEE HHH ERE H OE EE SORES SHO OPAR ADO DO EROS EEHEEH REREAD Om Station? SPSS SDHHSO HERR DES Catamounts split pair of football games in South Carolina Team wins first road game since 2005 By Justin Caudell Sports Editor Western snapped a 14-game losing streak on the road, and beat last years win count, in a victory against Presbyte- rian College on Sept. 21 in Clinton, South Carolina. The last time WCU de- feated an opponent away from Cullowhee was in 2005 at Chattanooga. The win also gave the Catamounts two Ws on the year'to surpass the one win season WCU had in 2007. The Catamounts struck first in the game on Sept. 21 in the second quarter when Western drove 79 yards in 13 plays to finish with a field goal kick by junior Black Bostic. The 3-0 lead was short lived though as the Blue Hose responded on their next possession with a one yard touchdown after going 75 yards in 10 plays for a 7-3 advantage. Western had good field advantage on the pursuing kickoff after a Presbyterian celebration penalty, but WCU had to settle for a second field goal by Bostic. Before the half, the Blue Hose extended their lead to 14-6 when a 77 yard, 7 play drive ended in the end zone. Following the break, a defensive battle took place between Western and Pres- byterian, but the Catamounts broke the stalemate with Bostics third field goal of the game with 01:25 remain- ing in the third quarter. The field goal was a career-long for Bostic, who booted the ball 39 yards to inch WCU closer to the Blue Hose at a score of 14-9. pass from senior quarterback Andy Horn to senior Donald James. The two hooked up again to cap the drive with a 16-yard, pass-and-catch into the end zone to give WCU the lead, 17-14. Presbyterian regained the lead 21 - 17 with 07:14 re- maining in the fourth quarter with a 4 yard TD pass after a 9 play, 40 yard drive. But Western jumped on top with three minutes left in the game. Starting at their own 30 yard line after a 19-yard kickoff return by red-shirt sophomore Adam Hearns, Horn marched the Catamounts down the field after capitalizing on an 11-yard pass to Hearns and a game-long, 39-yard strike to red-shirt sophomore Michael Pittman. In the red zone, Horn found Pittman again on a fourth- and-goal pass into the right corner of the end zone where Pittman reeled in the ball be- tween two defenders for the go-ahead score, 23-21, The Blue Hose had a chance to win the game with less than two minuetes in the game, but a field goal kick went wide left. Any win for us at this time is a big win, said head coach Dennis Wagner. I told. the team I didnt care what the score was, we just wanted to walk away with a victory. Wagner said he cautioned the team after the win that mistakes were made in the game that would need to be improved on. As a coach, every time you win a game, you have to step back and compli- ment the team on the win, said Wagner. But also warn them that when they come in to watch film that we have to make corrections and get bet- ter. As a coaching staff, we TDs, both career highs. Pitt- man led in receiving with 106 yards on 7 catches and had a touchdown. While Hearns had 52 yards on 7 catches. On the ground, Warley rushed for 202 yards on 29 carries to became just the eighth different Catamount to surpass 200 yards rush- ing in a single-game. His performance was also just the 10th, 200-yard rushing performance in school his- tory and WCUs first since Fred Boateng rushed for 213 against Georgia Southern in 2000. Horn also rushed 11 times for 31 yards, including a career-long, 19-yard scram- ble in the first quarter. The Catamounts had pos- session of the ball for 39:07 to Presbyterians 20:53. Western tried to carry their momentum from the win over to their first Southern Con- ference game in Charleston, South Carolina against The Citadel on Sept. 27, but the WCU offense was not able to capitlize on three turnovers to get the ball rolling. The Bull- dogs took an early 31-0 lead to win 34-14. Hearns and freshman Nate Harris each caught their first career touchdown pass from Horn in the loss. There is a lot from today that we need to work on, said Wagner. We had no consis- tency from our offense, poor reads by our quarterback, and receivers dropped passes. Defensively, we only played in spurts. We did not have the per- formance today to be able to win games in the Southern Conference. Bk The loss against The Cita- del was Westerns 16th. stri- aght loss.in the SoCon and moved the Catamounts to 2-3 on the year, 0-1 in confer- The Catamounts got their ave tu keep demanding that ence first touchdown of the game on their next possession in _the beginning of the fourth quarter. Western moved 97 yards in eight plays, which was the longest drive of the season, that included double- digit runs of 16, 11 and 12 yards by red-shirt freshman Quan Warley, and a 29-yard our guys do things right and understand that you play four quarters of football. By the numbers, Western dominated in total offense with 483 yards, compared to the Blue Hose 313. Through the air, Horn finished 24-of- 35 against Presbyterain for 241 yards passing and two WCU had their first home Southern Conference game amidst homecoming weekend on Oct. 4 against Samford, playing on a new turf and in front of a regional audience on WLOS-13 television. Results of the game will appear in the next edition of the Carolinian. Womens tennis continue Fall season at ETSU Fall Classic Two-day tournament ends with promise for Catamount freshman By Kaitlyn Mullis Sports Writer The Western Carolina womens tennis team con- tinued their early season at the 25th annual East Ten- nessee State University Fall Classic Tournament on Sat- urday, Sept. 20. The Lady Catamounts traveled to John- son City, Tennessee for the weekend competition, which hosted a total of twenty- five teams and featured 300 matches over the course of two days. Catamount freshman Layne Amold opened her collegiate career with a win at the ETSU, placing first in the Black Bracket of the tourna- ment. She faced Laura Bow- man from Milligan College, defeating her 6-0, 6-0. She then defeated Natalie Walters King from Milligan College 6-0, 6-0 to reach the finals. Arnold won her bracket by defeating Tusculum College freshman Kristen Keefer 6-2, 6-0. Also playing strong for the Catamounts was junior Amanda Massey, who placed third in the Grey Bracket. She opened the tournament by de- feating Cumberland Univer- sitys Kelcey Bauer 6-1, 6-1. She then fell to Appalachian States Amanda Cash 6-1, 6-3, before bouncing back in the consolation bracket to take third, Catamounts excel on and off the court: The womens tennis team, coming off of a strong show- ing both on the court and in the classroom last semester, was one of 102 NCAA Divi- sion I teams to be named to the ITA All-Academic Team. As a team, the Catamount tennis players had a cumula- tive GPA of 3.385. In order to be considered on the All- Academic team, a club has to carry a collective average GPA of 3.2 or higher. Additionally, Catamount tennis players Trish Hanson and Susanna Sjokvist re- ceived All-Academic honors from the ITA. It is the second straight year with the honor for both of the players. . The Catamounts, who finished 4-17 overall last se- mester, will look to brush up on their skills as they travel to Winston Salem, NC, on Oct. 23 for the ITA Southeast Regional Tournament, which will wrap up the Fall section of their season. They will return to action in February, playing against conference members such as Appalachian State Univer- sity, Wofford University, and Gardner-Webb _ University. The matches.continue all sea- son, leading up to the South- ern Conference Tournament in late April.

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 2008-10-27
• Extent
  • Dimension: 14" x 11.5"
  • Pages: 16
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_2008-09-26[10-27]_Vol74_No03[04]
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library