Box Score by Benny Benton
WILSON, N.C. – The Barton College men's volleyball team will play its final road match of the regular season Tuesday night when it visits Hartsville, S.C., to take on Coker College in a 7 p.m. start in Timberlake-Lawton Gymnasium.
The contest will be the last of nine straight road matches for the Bulldogs, and the 10th home game for Coker in its last 11 matches. It will also be the final home match of the year for the Cobras.
Coker sports information will provide live stats and live video of the match.
Barton men's volleyball fans can follow the Bulldogs throughout the season on www.BartonBulldogs.com and via social media including Twitter and Facebook.
Barton College Men's Volleyball
The Bulldogs enter the match with a 9-14 record, having won three of their last four matches. Junior Zach McCalla has been superb over that span, averaging 4.5 kills per set while hitting over .400 in three of them. He has had at least 15 kills in each of the four matches. McCalla is also averaging 1.12 digs per set and 0.75 blocks per set during that time.
For the season, McCalla is averaging 3.6 kills per set, fifth-best in the conference, and 0.24 service aces per set, 10th-best in the league. His play has been complemented by that of freshmen Chad Stanback Jr. and Jonathan Novoa-Miralles, who are averaging 2.42 and 2.35 kills per set, respectively.
That trio all produced double-figure kill totals when Barton and Coker played each other earlier this year in Wilson. McCalla had a match-high 20 kills, Novoa-Miralles added 13 and Stanback chipped in 11 for the Bulldogs, who won in four close sets, 25-23, 19-25, 25-21, 25-21.
Freshman setter Federico Pagliara delivered 45 assists in that contest, and junior Mike McMahon collected a team-high 16 digs.
Pagliara is averaging 8.92 assists per set for the season, but has produced an average of 10.6 assists per frame over the past four matches. McMahon continues to lead the nation in digs, averaging 3.29 per set.
Barton is 5-8 this year in true road matches.
Coker College Men's Volleyball
Like Barton, the Cobras enter the contest having won three of their last four. Coker's earlier loss to the Bulldogs came in the middle of a 13-match losing streak, but the Cobras ended that slide in a big way, winning three in a row.
Coker returned to the loss column in its most recent match on Saturday, recording a season-low 18 kills as a team and a negative .050 hitting percentage in losing a straight-set decision at Limestone.
The Cobras have four players with similar kill averages. Sophomore Jared Geizer leads the team at 2.57 kills per set, followed closely by sophomore Luke Hansen at 2.48. Freshman Artur Cabral is producing 2.38 kills per set, with junior Leshon Alexander contributing 2.15.
Cabral is also chipping in 0.31 service aces per frame, and Alexander paces the squad with 0.84 blocks per set. The team's lone senior is setter Ricardo Ferrer, who is averaging 9.18 assists per set and 0.31 service aces per set.
Hansen led the Cobras with 17 kills in their earlier matchup against Barton, while Cabral added 11 kills and Ferrer posted a double-double of 45 assists and a match-high 18 digs.
Coker defeated the Bulldogs the last time they played in Hartsville in 2013, taking a four-set victory.
The Cobras are 3-7 this season at Timberlake-Lawton Gymnasium.
