by Benny Benton
WILSON, N.C. – It's been at least a decade since the Barton College and University of Mount Olive women's volleyball teams have split their season home-and-away series. And for the past four seasons, the two sides have alternated the seasons in which they sweep.
The Lady Bulldogs hope that history continues, as it's Barton's turn to sweep, and they're already halfway there, having defeated the Trojans in four sets (25-18, 25-23, 23-25, 25-16) just one week ago in Wilson.
The return meeting takes place in Mount Olive's Kornegay Arena on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Mount Olive sports information will provide live stats and video of the contest.
Barton volleyball fans can follow the Lady Bulldogs all season at www.BartonBulldogs.com and via social media including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Barton College Women's Volleyball
Senior Jillian Sherman produced a season-high 12 kills and three service aces in last week's victory over Mount Olive. Sophomore Shae Schmidt added a match-high 14 kills and senior Melissa Cochran chipped in 10 kills and six blocks.
Cochran continues to rank among the Conference Carolinas leaders in several categories, including blocks per set (2nd, 1.04), attack percentage (3rd, .331) and kills per set (8th, 3.18).
Senior libero Amanda Grandy is third in the league in digs per set (4.39) and fifth in aces (0.47), while freshman setter Riley Bane ranks fifth in assists per set (8.26).
Cochran and Grandy both surpassed career milestones over the weekend, as Cochran collected her 1,000th career kill and Grandy gathered her 1,000th career dig on Friday at Limestone College.
Unfortunately, those marks were reached in a 3-1 loss for the Lady Bulldogs. However, the Royal Blue and White bounced back with a straight-set victory on Saturday over Converse College.
Barton stands at 6-10 overall and 4-3 in league play, just a half-game behind North Division co-leaders King University and Lees-McRae College.
Mount Olive Women's Volleyball
The Trojans produced the same outcome as Barton over the weekend, only in reverse order and a little less efficiently. Mount Olive defeated Converse 3-1 on Friday, but dropped a straight-set decision at Limestone in its most recent outing on Saturday.
The weekend split left the Trojans with an overall mark of 5-12 and conference record of 2-5. UMO is two games behind Barton in the North Division standings.
Mount Olive's top player of late has been Montgomery Register. The sophomore middle blocker produced a team-high 14 kills while hitting a sizzling .619 in the win over the Valkyries and hit .444 in the loss at Limestone. Register shared the team high of 10 kills against Barton while hitting .381 and added seven blocks, a category in which she leads the conference (1.10 per set).
Freshman Britni Johnson also had 10 kills in UMO's earlier matchup with the Lady Bulldogs and leads the team for the year (2.38 per set).
Senior Dezirae Mackey is eighth in the league in blocks per set (0.83) and sixth in attack percentage (.308).
As a team, Mount Olive hit a season-high .310 in Friday's win at Converse, but then produced an average of just .100 in the loss at Limestone. The Trojans recorded their second-lowest average of the year in the earlier meeting with Barton, hitting just .027.
Mount Olive and Barton are similar in most of the team rankings: Barton is ninth in the league and UMO is tenth in both attack percentage and kills per set; the Trojans are second in blocks per set and the Lady Bulldogs are third. However, Barton enjoys a significant advantage in service aces per set (6th vs. 11th) and digs per set (7th vs. 12th).
