STATESBORO- Georgia Southern volleyball (9-1) extended its win streak to eight and set win streak to 16 after shutting down Western Carolina (5-7) in straight sets on Friday night, beating the Catamounts for the 12th consecutive time dating back to 2006.

"I thought we did a good job of controlling the offensive side of the ball," head coach Chad Willis said. "It was a bit of a letdown there in the third set with 10 attacking errors, but I thought we were pretty in control all night offensively. Once we got our defense going in that first set it set the tone, making it tough for their two left sides to score, and we shut down their big right side. In terms of following the game plan, we did a great job executing."

The Eagles absolutely rushed the Catamounts in the first set, only letting the visitors score consecutive points once. 

Jordan Christy's kill put the Eagles up 22-8 after a 5-0 run with Reagan Barth closing the set on a kill for a 25-9 win, the least points the Eagles have allowed in a set this season.

GS hit a scorching .577 (17-2-26) in the opener, carrying momentum from a .429 overall performance against Alabama State the night before.

Trailing 20-18 in the second, the Eagles quickly rallied for four straight, including back-to-back kills by Barth to take the lead. Tied at 22, Barth scored two of the next three Eagles points with a block and a set-ending kill to go up 2-0.

A 5-0 spread to start the third was all the Eagles needed. The Catamounts got to within 15-12, but the blue & white pushed the lead back to five after a block by Jillian Gray and Lydia Seymour. 

Seymour's back-to-back kills closed out the sixth consecutive sweep for the Eagles and eighth straight win.

Barth had the most explosive offensive night, swinging .385 (18-3-39), a season-best in kills, and adding ten digs for her fourth double-double of 2024.
 
"Our goal was to set the tone early and get to five, ten and 15 first in each set," Barth said. "I think we did a good job of that and staying the course throughout all the sets. Our defense did a really good job setting up our offense."

Gray joined Barth in double figures with 11 kills and recorded nine digs. Kirsten Barrett had 36 assists, three kills, a solo block and seven digs.

Ashlyn Lovett had another sparkling effort on the defensive side, notching her second 30-dig effort of the season and doing it again in just three sets. On the season, she is averaging a career-high six digs per set, surpassing the 200-dig mark with her effort against WCU.

Seymour tied a career-high with five blocks, also adding six kills. The Eagles held the Catamounts to an opponent-low .042 hitting mark in the match.

With the win, the Eagles reached several benchmarks - extending its longest win streak since 2013, going 8-0 to start the season at home for a consecutive season, and win 16 straight sets for the first time since October 2003 (10/24-29).

Georgia Southern closes out the Bash in the Boro with a final matchup against Winthrop on Saturday at 1:00.