Nov. 15, 2005

2005 SoCon Volleyball Championship Bracket

2005 SoCon Championship Notes
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Cullowhee, N.C. - After winning its regular season finale on Sunday, the Western Carolina volleyball team finished tied for seventh with Wofford, earning the seventh seed in this week's Southern Conference Volleyball Championships by virtue of its early-season win over the Terriers in the teams' only meeting. The Catamounts will face the 10th-seeded UNC Greensboro Spartans, who WCU knocked off in the season finale less than three days ago, in the tournament's second match at 12:30 pm on Thursday.

Expanded this year to include every team in the conference championship tournament, the first match features the eight and nine seeds, Wofford versus Elon, at 10:00 am on Thursday in the only first-round match-up that was split during the regular season. Following the Cats-and-Spartans, the opening day concludes with sixth-seeded Furman facing the 11th-seed, The Citadel, which is making its first-ever SoCon tournament appearance.

Friday's match-ups include the four versus five battle as fourth-seeded Chattanooga faces fifth-seeded Davidson at 10:00 am. Top-seeded -- and conference unbeaten -- College of Charleston awaits the winner of Thursday's Wofford/Elon match, with second-seeded Appalachian State facing the Western-UNCG victor in the first match of the day's second session at 4:30 pm. In the night cap on Friday, the Furman/Citadel winner will face third-seeded, and home standing, Georgia Southern at 7:00 pm.

The semifinals are set for Saturday with matches at 2:00 pm and 4:30 pm, with the championship to be played Sunday at 2:00 pm.

The Catamounts (8-24, 7-11 SoCon) swept the Spartans this season, winning 3-1 last Sunday and scoring its only three-game sweep of the year, 3-0, in Cullowhee on Oct. 16. In the two combined matches, sophomore Meredith Harmon hit an impressive .560 en route to tallying 35 kills (5.0 k/gm) while committing just six errors. At the net, her classmate, Danielle Spitzer, recorded nine total blocks to compliment Harmon's seven.

Sophomore Meredith Harmon hit over .500 versus the Spartans in the two meetings this season to lead Western.

Defensively, senior Ellie Talbot and junior Heather Koontz battled for the team lead in digs, finishing the two matches with 33 and 32 digs, respectively. Libero Kate Willard was second on the team with 21 digs, while her classmate Meghan Boyle dished out an average of 10.67 assists per game (64 total).

As a team, Western out hit UNC Greensboro (5-25, 2-16 SoCon), .208-to-.137, but were out blocked by one, 17-to-16.

Western will look to win its opening-round, match-up for the first-time since the 2000 season when it defeated rival, Appalachian State, 3-2 in Charleston, S.C. In 2001, the Catamounts fell in four to Davidson, took Furman to five in 2002, and lost its last two SoCon tournament appearances to Georgia Southern, 3-2 and 3-0 a year ago in Cullowhee.

The Catamounts and Spartans hit the court at 12:30 on Thursday afternoon, with the winner advancing to face the second-seeded Appalachian State Mountaineers at 4:30 on Friday in Statesboro, Ga.

Fans can catch all the action of the 2005 Southern Conference Volleyball Championship live on SoCon.TV. For fans not able to make it to the championship, you can view all 10 matches of the tournament for only $5.95. The championship match will broadcasts over the air waves by the Southern Conference Sports Network beginning at 2 p.m. on Sunday with the first serve set for 2 p.m.