HICKORY, N.C. — The 14th-ranked Catawba Valley Community College volleyball team celebrated "Sophomore Night" with a sweep of visiting Richard Bland during its final home match of 2018 at the Tarlton Complex on Tuesday afternoon.
Set scores were 25-23, 25-21 and 25-20.
Tuesday's match was the final home contest in the Red Hawk careers of four sophomores — Na-Diea Atkins, Karsyn Mundy, Emily Williams and Emilee Webber.
"I'm really proud of them" said CVCC head volleyball coach Shannon Hudson of her sophomore quartet. "I'm glad we got this win for them tonight."
The Red Hawks (27-8) overcame a 15-10 deficit against the Statesmen during the first set, rallying for a two-point win, and Catawba Valley carried that momentum into the second set, winning the first eight points of the stanza en route to its three-set victory.
"It was a slow start, which seems to be a trend for us, but we bounced back, especially at the end of the first set and going into the second set," Hudson said. "We started the second set really strong. Richard Bland was super physical on the net. They have lots of big hitters. We knew if they got a pass, they were going quick and strong. We tried to force them off the net."
Emma Clark paced CVCC in the match with 12 kills, six block assists and three aces. Sage Harrington and Meredith Patterson added seven and six kills, respectively.
Defensively, Williams led the Red Hawks with 19 digs, while Paige Sizemore added 14 digs.
Macy Pope made a team-high 16 assists for Catawba Valley, and Webber tallied 15 assists and two aces.
Winners of eight-straight contests, the CVCC volleyball team returns to action on Friday and Saturday for its final four regular-season matches of 2018 at the Parkland College tournament in Champaign, Ill.
The Red Hawks play 16th-ranked DII Lincoln Land Community College at noon Friday followed by a 2 p.m. contest against Sauk Valley Community College. On Saturday, Catawba Valley faces McHenry County College at 10 a.m. followed by a noon match up with Carl Sandburg College, which received votes in the latest NJCAA DII poll.
