Women’s volleyball ranked eighth in SAC preseason poll

Catawba doubled its win total from 2023 to 2024, finishing with a 9-14 overall record, including a winning 6-5 record on its home court. The blue and white won six conference matches while missing the SAC Tournament by one spot. A brutal conference schedule had Catawba play the bottom two teams once apiece while going against the top four — who were the top four seeds in the NCAA Southeast Regional — twice each. Against regional finalists Wingate and Anderson, the Catawba Indians took the first set of the home match with the Bulldogs and pushed the Trojans to five sets in the Goodman Arena finale.

Head coach Brenn Ferguson gets a handful of hitters and a fourth-year libero back, filling the missing pieces with those coming back from injury, incoming freshmen and the transfer portal. Katrina Misra has returned to the lineup after suffering a season-ending injury in a preseason exhibition last fall. The Ayers twins are set to make awaited college debuts; Maggie Ayers packs a punch at outside hitter, while lefty Rebekah Ayers is equally as threatening at opposite. Camden Bizot is a transfer setter out of Blinn College, where she averaged nearly four assists per set and tallied 73 aces in 2025.

Lillie Kate Rogers, Riley Hill and Sydney McCutcheon were listed as players to watch for the upcoming season.

Rogers enjoyed a breakout sophomore season with team highs of 256 kills and 23 service aces while posting a dependable .163 hitting percentage. The Hartwell, Georgia, native was a valuable defensive piece as well, leading non-liberos with 206 digs in addition to tallying 22 blocks. Rogers totaled six double-doubles on kills and digs last year — accomplishing the feat in each of the final three matches — featuring a dominant 18-kill, 20-dig outing at Newberry.

Entering her fourth year as Catawba's starting libero, Hill ranks third in career digs during the rally era (since 2008) and is creeping up to the top-10 list all time. The 2025 campaign was her best statistically despite playing one fewer match, recording 432 digs to go with 20 service aces and a .935 reception percentage. The local product notched 12 matches with at least 20 digs while notching multiple aces in five contests last season.

Despite missing all but one match of last season, McCutcheon returns to the lineup in 2026 looking to pick up where she left off as a rookie. The native of Jefferson, Georgia, was one of the SAC's stronger setters for the first half of 2024, dishing out 267 assists in 48 sets of action for a 5.56 per-set average. With multiple departures at the setter position, McCutcheon is positioned well for a bounce-back campaign.

Catawba opens the season at home this weekend (Aug. 28-29) with the 5th Set Invitational. Action begins on Friday at 7 p.m. against Davis & Elkins; before first serve, a special ceremony for the 5th Set campaign will take place in the lobby of Goodman Arena.

SAC volleyball preseason coaches' poll

1. Anderson (116 points, 8 first-place votes)
2. Wingate (109, 3 FPV)
3. Lenoir-Rhyne (101, 1 FPV)
4. Carson-Newman (97)
5. UVA Wise (71)
6. Coker (61)
7. Tusculum (55)
8. Catawba (52)
9. Newberry (42)
10. Lincoln Memorial (40)
11. Mars Hill (37)
12. Emory & Henry (11)