The Western Carolina women’s volleyball team entered the weekend losers of three straight conference matches. They didn’t help that streak with a 3-1 loss to Samford on Saturday night in the Ramsey Center.
But they more than made up for that Sunday afternoon on Senior Day.
Morgan Cochran with one of her 19 digs. Photo by Ashley Evans WCU Public Relations.
In the final home game of their WCU careers, Morgan Cochran and Leah Butler helped guide the Catamounts to a 3-0 sweep of Chattanooga to break their four-game Southern Conference losing streak.
Butler had five kills and four block assists on the afternoon, while Cochran did her usual dirty work and added 19 digs. After Sunday’s match, she has 2,103 career digs, 49 shy of the 2,152 put up by Liz Rondone from 2006-2009.
Cochran, who continues to lead the NCAA in digs per set, is on pace to set school the school record and break Liz Rondone’s mark of 5.97 digs/set in 2006. Cochran currently has a 6.13 digs/set average, which is her highest mark since posting 4.63 digs/set — third all-time — in 2011. Rondone and Cochran hold five of the top six records in digs/set in school history.
Coming into the season, Rondone held the top two spots — 770 in 2006 and 580 in 2007 — in school history for digs in a season. Cochran has 619 on the season, her highest total since the 459 she had in 2010.
Addy George and Jordan Timmerman led the offensive attack for the Catamounts. George tallied nine kills on 23 attempts with one error for a .348 hitting percentage. She also added five blocks. Timmerman scrambled the Chattanooga defense with 10 kills on 18 attempts with one error for a .500 hitting percentage.
With the Catamounts up 12-9 in the opening set, George recorded one of her kills off one of Cristina Nazario’s 28 assists. The Catamounts would outscore Chattanooga 8-3 over the next eleven points and took the set 25-21.
Leah Butler with one of her five kills on the afternoon. Photo by Ashley Evans WCU Public Relations.
The Catamounts cruised 25-11 in the third set and improved to 17-11 on the season and 7-7 in the conference. Western is tied with Elon for the sixth and seventh spots in the standings. Elon holds the tiebreaker after beating the Catamounts on November 2.
Western Carolina will finish the season with back-to-back road games against Georgia Southern on November 15 and The Citadel on November 16.
Information from the Catamount Sports Web Site was used in this report.
