HARROGATE, Tenn. -- A roller coaster regular season comes to an end on Saturday afternoon as the Lady Railsplitters (14-14, 11-10 SAC) make the 260-mile trek to Salisbury, N.C. to square off against the Catawba Indians (16-10, 13-8 SAC) at 2 p.m. inside of Goodman Gym.
 
Lincoln Memorial and first-year head coach Krystal Evans have battled an almost ceaseless flow of devastating injuries to key contributors. Center Stephanie Smith (La Vergne, Tenn.) - who was leading the team with 12.4 points and 8.5 rebounds per game - went down with a leg injury just nine minutes into the Lady Railsplitters' visit to Indianapolis on December 20, and she has not returned to the lineup since. Reserve forward Samantha Satterlee (Junction City, Kan.) suffered a season-ending leg injury back on December 1 while in the midst of scoring a season-high 11 points in just 13 minutes of action. Starting forward Kortnay Cox (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) missed 13 games with a hand injury before finally returning to the floor in Monday's win at Brevard.
 
With so many pieces of the puzzle missing on a game-by-game basis, Coach Evans and her staff have had to cobble together lineups throughout stretches of the season, while changing what the Lady Railsplitters do schematically on the fly. That situation, more than anything else, has defined a season that has been filled with highs and lows.
 
Lincoln Memorial opened the season with wins in seven of the first nine games, then went on a season-long five-game losing skid. The Lady Railsplitters flipped the script again with wins in five of the next seven games, including a 90-85 overtime triumph against Carson-Newman. A three-game losing streak followed, but Lincoln Memorial ended that with a 63-60 win over first-place Wingate in the Tex Turner Arena final. Most recently, the Lady Railsplitters hit another valley with a 79-57 loss at Carson-Newman on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Through all of the ups and downs, the Lady Railsplitters have endured, putting themselves squarely in the heart of the South Atlantic Conference standings with an 11-10 league mark. Lincoln Memorial is assured no worse than a sixth-place finish and a spot in the SAC Championship field, while a win on Saturday and a Carson-Newman loss to Newberry would bump LMU into a tie for fifth.
 
A win on Saturday would be another tremendous high for the Lady Railsplitters as the Catawba Indians have been exceptional in Salisbury this season, logging an 8-3 home record which includes a win over Wingate back on November 19. The Lady Railsplitters, meanwhile, are 2-9 in true road contests this season.
 
Catawba welcomes the Lady Railsplitters to Goodman Gym with wins in seven of its last nine games. Most recently, the Indians steamrolled the Queens Royals 64-43 in Salisbury. Catawba limited Queens to 32.7 percent shooting and went for a 44.8 percent mark from the field. Jada Huntley led the way with 15 points, while Chloe Bully contributed 11 points in 21 minutes.
 
Saturday's contest pits the two best rebounding teams in the conference against one another as the Lady Railsplitters lead the league with 44.5 boards per game while Catawba grabs 43.1 per contest. The Indians are the most up-tempo team in the SAC, averaging 63.8 field-goal attempts per game, but they are shooting the rock at just a 39.3 percent rate. Catawba is the second-worst three-point shooting team in the league with a 27.8 percent clip. Defensively, the Indians surrender 66.2 points per game on 40.2 percent shooting.
 
Huntley leads Catawba with 14.6 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.3 steals per game, while Bri Johnson is scoring 12.8 points and hauling in 4.8 boards per appearance. Bully and Terri Rogers are also averaging double figures as Bully is contributing 11.7 points per and Rogers is scoring 10.9 a game.
 
In the first meeting between the two teams on January 24 at Tex Turner Arena, the Lady Railsplitters put in one of their most complete performances of the season with a 77-57 victory. Lincoln Memorial limited the Indians to 28.8 percent shooting, went 29-for-55 (52.7 percent) from the field and bullied Catawba on the boards 52-33. Shea Coker (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Kiara Rawls (Killeen, Texas) poured in 15 points apiece, while Megan Pittman (Liberty, Ky.) notched 13 points and 10 rebounds. Bully was the only player in double digits for the Indians, but she needed 14 shots to score 13 points. 
 
Lincoln Memorial trails Catawba 7-10 in the all-time series and the Indians have won seven of the eight meetings in Salisbury, N.C. Last season marked the Lady Railsplitters' only-ever win in Goodman Gym as they overcame a 10-point halftime deficit and knocked off the Indians 72-71 in overtime.
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday. Links for live stats, video and audio will all be accessible through www.LMURailsplitters.com.

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