GREENSBORO, N.C. – Bethune-Cookman closes out its 2017 regular season with a crucial Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Southern Division swing at North Carolina A&T Friday at 7 p.m. and North Carolina Central Sunday at noon.
The Wildcats (10-13 overall, 7-1 conference) are tied with Florida A&M (11-11, 7-1) entering the final week of play with North Carolina A&T (14-11,6-2) close behind.
A Wildcat sweep of the weekend would give them the Division's No. 1 seed at next week's conference tournament hosted by Maryland-Eastern Shore. Bethune-Cookman holds the tiebreaker over the Rattlers. Any other combination of wins and losses by all three teams just really gets complicated.
Both Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M swept the Aggies and the Eagles (4-17,4-4) when the North Carolina teams came to the Sunshine State last month.
B-CU UPDATE: The Wildcats have dropped their last two matches … B-CU's only non-FAMU loss in MEAC play was last year at North Carolina A&T while Hurricane Matthew was slamming the campus back in Daytona Beach … The Wildcats lead the league team-wise in assists (11.78 per set), blocks (2.32) and digs (16.44) and are second in kills behind Howard.
Several Wildcats are in position to be individual statistical champions:
Rakaya Neely leads the league in blocks (1.05 per set). Maryland-Eastern Shore's is close behind at 1.02. Neely (.350) is within striking distance of FAMU's Candelaria Herrera (.376) for the hitting percentage lead.
Phalen Clark (10.25 per set) has a commanding lead over Howard's Tamia Dockery (9.79) for the assist title.
Rechez Lindsay (3.93 per set) is second in digs behind FAMU's Valentina Carrasco (4.47).
Senior
Alondra Bautista has cracked the MEAC top ten in kills at 2.74 per set. Her 3.64 average in league matches tops the conference.
Freshmen
Jordan Jefferson and
Faith Landreneaux are making their cases for MEAC All Rookie honors. Jefferson notched her 12
th double-double last week and is sixth in kills (3.11) and ninth in scoring (3.43) while Landreneaux is seventh in hitting (.274) and fifth in blocks (.93)
ABOUT NORTH CAROLINA A&T: The Aggies have won three straight … Samara Brown has registered 213 kills and Courtney Pitt 200 this season … Freshman setter Eddie Brewer has 150 kills and 534 assists.
ABOUT NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL: The Eagles started the season 0-13 but have played .500 ball since and have clinched the Southern Division's No. 4 seed … Da'Nesha Miller and Whitney White have posted 156 and 150 kills, respectively,
WEEKEND COVERAGE: Sandwiched between the volleyball matches is a B-CU football game at NCCU … Greensboro is only an hour's drive from Durham … Follow our official twitter feeds -- @BCUathletics and @BCUvolleyball – for links to live stats, webcasts and in-match updates.
