University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Tuesday, August 30
Asheville, NC
6 pm
UNC Asheville
vs
Western Carolina
Volleyball readies for home matches vs. Western Carolina and Lees-McRae
08.29.2022 | Women's Volleyball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville volleyball team will be back in action on Tuesday and Wednesday when it welcomes Western Carolina and Lees-McRae to the Justice Center for back-to-back non-conference matches. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+ and are scheduled for 6 p.m. first serves.
Last Time Out – Asheville is coming off a weekend where it hosted the UNC Asheville Invitational. The Bulldogs tallied a 3-0 sweep of Stonehill to open the Invitational but suffered setbacks to North Alabama (3-0) and Queens (3-1).
Count on Cruser – A definite bright spot for Asheville last weekend was the play of junior Kat Cruser. As one of the few returners from last season's team, Cruser racked up a team-high 30 kills and attacked at a .237 clip to go with 18 digs and three block assists in three matches. Her top individual performance came in the season-opening win over Stonehill with 10 kills and posted a hitting percentage of .391. She also had 14 kills in the match vs. Queens on Saturday. For her play, Cruser was named to the All-Tournament team following the Invitational.
Rodrigues racks up digs in Bulldog debut – New Bulldog libero Giulia Rodrigues wasted little time racking up digs for Asheville. In three matches, Rodrigues totaled a team-high 51 digs to go with nine assists, three kills, and two aces. Rodrigues, who reached double figure dig totals in all three matches, posted a team-high 26 digs vs. Queens on Saturday. After one weekend of action around the country, Rodrigues ranks 31st nationally with digs per set average of 5.10.
About the Opponents – Western Carolina will bring a 2-1 record with it to Asheville on Tuesday after picking up wins over Wake Forest (3-2) and North Carolina Central (3-0) last weekend in Winston-Salem. Early returns on the Catamounts are that they have several options offensively as five different players have scored 20 points or more in their first three matches. Merry Gebel has paced this group so far with 40.5 points scored with 37 of those points coming via a kill.
Lees-McRae, meanwhile, went 0-4 last weekend at the West Florida Tournament in Pensacola, Florida. It was a stiff test for the Bobcats to open the season as two of those four opponents were nationally ranked at the Division II level. Individually, a player to watch for Lees-McRae is Julia Emore, who paces the team with 25 kills and ranks second on the squad with 30 assists.
Series Rewind vs. Opponents – The Bulldogs hold the edge in the all-time series vs. Western Carolina as they have won 25 of the 43 all-time matches. One of those wins came last season when Asheville took down the Catamounts in four sets at the Davidson Invitational. Tuesday will also mark WCU's first trip to Asheville since 2018, which ended with a 3-1 win for the Bulldogs.
Wednesday's match pitting Asheville vs. Lees-McRae will be the first ever matchup between the two programs.
Last Time Out – Asheville is coming off a weekend where it hosted the UNC Asheville Invitational. The Bulldogs tallied a 3-0 sweep of Stonehill to open the Invitational but suffered setbacks to North Alabama (3-0) and Queens (3-1).
Count on Cruser – A definite bright spot for Asheville last weekend was the play of junior Kat Cruser. As one of the few returners from last season's team, Cruser racked up a team-high 30 kills and attacked at a .237 clip to go with 18 digs and three block assists in three matches. Her top individual performance came in the season-opening win over Stonehill with 10 kills and posted a hitting percentage of .391. She also had 14 kills in the match vs. Queens on Saturday. For her play, Cruser was named to the All-Tournament team following the Invitational.
Rodrigues racks up digs in Bulldog debut – New Bulldog libero Giulia Rodrigues wasted little time racking up digs for Asheville. In three matches, Rodrigues totaled a team-high 51 digs to go with nine assists, three kills, and two aces. Rodrigues, who reached double figure dig totals in all three matches, posted a team-high 26 digs vs. Queens on Saturday. After one weekend of action around the country, Rodrigues ranks 31st nationally with digs per set average of 5.10.
About the Opponents – Western Carolina will bring a 2-1 record with it to Asheville on Tuesday after picking up wins over Wake Forest (3-2) and North Carolina Central (3-0) last weekend in Winston-Salem. Early returns on the Catamounts are that they have several options offensively as five different players have scored 20 points or more in their first three matches. Merry Gebel has paced this group so far with 40.5 points scored with 37 of those points coming via a kill.
Lees-McRae, meanwhile, went 0-4 last weekend at the West Florida Tournament in Pensacola, Florida. It was a stiff test for the Bobcats to open the season as two of those four opponents were nationally ranked at the Division II level. Individually, a player to watch for Lees-McRae is Julia Emore, who paces the team with 25 kills and ranks second on the squad with 30 assists.
Series Rewind vs. Opponents – The Bulldogs hold the edge in the all-time series vs. Western Carolina as they have won 25 of the 43 all-time matches. One of those wins came last season when Asheville took down the Catamounts in four sets at the Davidson Invitational. Tuesday will also mark WCU's first trip to Asheville since 2018, which ended with a 3-1 win for the Bulldogs.
Wednesday's match pitting Asheville vs. Lees-McRae will be the first ever matchup between the two programs.
Players Mentioned
OH
/ Women's Volleyball
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