University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Volleyball Home to Gardner-Webb on Friday
10.16.2014 | Women's Volleyball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville volleyball team is back in action this weekend with two matches as the Bulldogs host Gardner-Webb in a key Big South Conference battle Friday night at Justice Center starting at 7 p.m. Asheville plays a non-conference match at South Carolina State Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Friday's a match vs. Gardner-Webb will be video-streamed and can be seen for free at uncabulldogs.com under the multimedia tag at the Big South Network.
A young Asheville (4-16, 1-4 BSC) team picked up its first Big South Conference win of the season in thrilling fashion last Saturday night at Presbyterian College when the Bulldogs won in five sets.
“I was really proud of our girls for getting the win at Presbyterian College on Saturday,” stated Bulldog coach Frederico Santos. “We did a nice job of battling through adversity and finding a way to get a great victory on the road against a Presbyterian team that's having a good season.”
Santos hopes the Bulldogs can build on that momentum this weekend. Asheville opened league play at Gardner-Webb three weeks ago and fell in five sets. The Runnin' Bulldogs are 9-14 overall and 2-3 in league play.
“Gardner-Webb has a nice team that has had some big wins throughout this season,” explained Santos. “They're well-coached and play well together.”
South Carolina State is 2-19 on the year, but Santos expects a tough match on Saturday in Orangeburg.
“South Carolina State in young like us and been in most of its matches this season,” stated Santos. “We know we're in for a battle when we travel there on Saturday.”
Asheville has been led lately by the play of junior setter Katie Davis. She was nominated as Big South Player of the Week after two strong matches last week.
Friday at Winthrop, Katie had eight kills in 18 attempts along with 29 assists, 11 digs and five blocks. On Saturday at PC, the junior setter had nine kills in 20 attempts with no errors, along with 48 assists and six blocks. She just missed a triple-double in both matches.
Sophomore outside hitter Shelby Erickson leads Asheville in kills with a 2.48 average, followed by junior Christine Lakatos with a 2.42 mark. Junior libero Bryn Pfieffer tops the club in digs with a 2.97 mark that increases to 4.64 in league matches. Sophomore Madison Vaughn is averaging 1.03 blocks per set.
