by Kevin Buczek
WILSON, N.C.-The top of the Conference Carolinas women's volleyball North Division consists of four teams separated by just two games in the win column including Barton College. The Lady Bulldogs will visit two of those others squads this weekend when BC plays at King University in Bristol, Tenn., on Friday at 7 p.m., and at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, N.C., on Saturday at 2 p.m.
KU sports information will be providing Live Stats and Live Video for Friday's match and LMC sports information will be providing Live Stats and Live Video for Saturday's tilt.
Barton volleyball fans can follow the Bulldogs throughout the season on BartonBulldogs.com and via social media including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Barton College Women's Volleyball
The Lady Bulldogs have won four of their last five Conference Carolinas matches to move within a half game of Lees-McRae and Belmont Abbey College for first place in the North Division with a 5-3 league ledger. Barton is coming off a non-conference road loss at Francis Marion University in slipping to 7-11 overall.
Senior middle blocker Melissa Cochran maintains her strong play on the front line both offensively and defensively. The All-Conference performer is second in the league with 1.02 blocks per set, third with a .324 hitting percentage and eighth with 3.14 kills per set.
Sophomore Kaitlyn Micol and Shae Schmidt follow Cochran with similar averages of 2.10 and 2.07 kills per set.
Senior libero Amanda Grandy is third in the conference with 4.46 digs per set and fourth with 0.46 aces per set.
Freshman setter Riley Bane orchestrates the Lady Bulldogs offense with 8.18 assists per set (fifth in the league) while ranking second on the team with 2.71 digs per set.
BC is 5-10 on the road and will be concluding a stretch of playing 17 of its first 20 matches away from Wilson this weekend.
Barton lost both of its matches to King last season but did sweep last year's series against Lees-McRae.
King University Women's Volleyball
King shared the 2013 Conference Carolinas regular season title with Belmont Abbey last season. In a match that determined the current leader of the North Division, the Tornado lost a five-set match home match to Lees-McRae. King is 11-9 overall and 5-4 in the conference (one game behind LMC and BAC and a half game behind BC).
The Tornado return four of their six All-Conference honorees from their championship squad including first team selections Summer Kremer and Olivia Underwood along with second team honorees Grace Underwood and senior Payton Tipton.
Kremer is second in the league with 4.67 kills per set; Olivia Underwood is the conference's top setter statistically with 10.69 assists per set; Grace Underwood features a .309 hitting percentage; and Tipton – the league's reigning Defensive Player of the Year – anchors King's back line. Tipton (3.77) and Kremer (3.34) both average over one dig per set.
The Tornado rank second in the league with a .236 hitting percentage and 15.86 digs per set.
Lees-McRae College Women's Volleyball
The Bobcats sit atop the North Division at 6-3 (.667), fraction points ahead of Belmont Abbey at 7-4 (.636). Lees-McRae has won its last two matches to move to 11-7 overall.
LMC went winless in conference competition last year at 0-18 but has quickly turned it around with the addition of five very impactful players including junior transfers Jariliz Cotte and Allyson Schillinger along with the freshmen trio of Ana Rodriguez, Siarra Walker and Madison Martin.
Cotte leads the Bobcats with 3.63 kills per set and 0.61 aces per set; Schillinger serves as their primary setter and averages 8.46 assists per set; Martin contributes 3.33 digs per set on the defensive end; Walker is tied with junior Jordan Banta with a team-best 0.82 blocks pet set; and Rodriguez chips in 0.40 aces per set for a dangerous service team.
Banta and Avalon Liscio are LMC's top returners and they rank second and third on the team with 2.48 and 2.13 kills per set, correspondingly.
