UPDATED: Due to the unfavorable weather forecast in the Cullowhee area Friday night, Chattanooga's volleyball match inside the Ramsey Center against Western Carolina has been moved to a 5 p.m. start Friday evening.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – The Mocs volleyball team is back in action Friday and Saturday to take on Western Carolina and ETSU, coming on just one day of rest after visiting Samford in Birmingham, Ala., Wednesday night.
Both matches are set to begin at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday in Cullowhee, N.C., and Johnson City, Tenn. Both contests can be followed via live stats, with links located on the GoMocs.com volleyball schedule page, and the SoCon Digital Network is set to carry Friday's match against Western Carolina. Saturday's ETSU match will not be shown on the SDN.
The Mocs are 12-14 overall and 5-6 in conference play, looking to climb back to .500 with each match this weekend. Thus far, Chattanooga is 1-0 against Western Carolina (3-0) while falling earlier in the season to East Tennessee (3-1). ETSU currently sits in fourth place in the league with a 5-4 SoCon mark while WCU is fifth with a 6-5 record. Chattanooga ranks seventh.
UTC continues to look to Kristy Wieser (Lincoln, Neb.) for its offensive production. The junior totals a team-best 244 kills while sophomore Allie Davenport (Tyrone, Ga.) follows up with 2.63 kills per set and has 197 total kills. The Chattanooga defense is headed up by sophomore Nicole Sumida (Hixson, Tenn.) and junior Lauren Gainer (Boca Raton, Fla.), as the two lead the team with 76 and 99 total blocks, respectively.
Western Carolina's offense is led by senior Jordan Timmerman, who ranks seventh in the Southern Conference with 3.00 kills per set with 279 total kills. As a team, Western is eighth in the league in kills while third in hitting percentage. The defense is led by Addy George and Katie O'Conner, as the two rank sixth and seventh in the league with .99 and .93 blocks per set, respectively. WCU's blocking is second in the league to only ETSU.
The Bucs top blocker, Meredith Hardy, ranks second in the league with 1.21 block per set while her team sits atop the blocking category with 2.40 blocks per set. The ETSU defense also ranks in the top five in both opponent hitting percentage (.187) and digs (15.17 per set). Senior Katie Muey is the conference's top libero as she averages 5.19 digs per set.
