Appalachian State volleyball defeated the Western Carolina Catamounts in a quick and easy 3-0 sweep Tuesday night. Only losing the lead twice the entire night, the Mountaineers won all three sets 25-9, 26-24 and 25-18.

The first set was one of the best defensive sets yet for App State, holding the Catamounts to hitting negative-.065 as a team.

“It was a surprise and a reality check to how good we have gotten since we’ve moved to the Sun Belt,” libero Meghan Mahoney said. Mahoney had six digs in the first outing.

Within no time, App State was on and ready for the second set of the night. However, so was Western.

Scoring first, WCU managed to challenge the black and gold throughout the set, forcing them to go over 25 and win by two.

Although still a win, head coach Matt Ginipro considered it complacency.

“We get lazy, we get complacent, and we don’t go full-out on every play,” Ginipro said. “Every now and then we want things to be easy and that’s what gets us.”

Ginipro said he continuously harps on it at practice and challenges the seniors to do better.

The third set was described as a recovering set by Ginipro.  Scoring the first point and not letting up, App quickly drove their lead to 7-3.

But the Catamounts wouldn’t leave without a fight and forced a tie at 13-13.

After a quick timeout, App was ready to go and even with two opposing timeouts they wouldn’t let up, taking the final set 25-18.

Ashton Gregory, stand-out middle blocker for the Mountaineers, sat the game out with an injury.

Luckily for the Mountaineers, Ginipro said it was nothing serious, and he just wanted to make sure she was ready for the more important conference games.

Starting Friday against Troy, App State goes into a non-stop schedule of Sun Belt Conference play until the conference championships Nov. 19.

Story by: Noah Gerringer, Intern Sports Reporter