Sept. 20, 2005

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University volleyball team lost an exciting five-game match to in-state rival, South Alabama on Tuesday night at Seibert Hall.

Samford (3-9) lost the match 3-2 (33-35, 31-33, 30-26, 30-27, 8-15), as South Alabama improved to 6-7 on the season. The Bulldogs were down 2-0, but came back to win games three and four, forcing a fifth game. Samford was unable to come back all the way to win it, and ended up losing the final game 8-15. Samford's 82 kills equaled South Alabama's; however, the Bulldogs totaled 34 attack errors compared to the Jaguar's 28.

Freshman Sara Sears lead the Bulldogs, with 25 kills. Sears also had 14 digs, tallying her eighth double-double of the season and her fourth in as many games. Freshman Kirstein Sosnowski notched 18 kills of her own, while sophomore Angela Dempski added 13, and hit for a team-high .400 attack percentage.

Defensively, the Bulldogs were led by Sosnowski, who totaled seven block assists and sophomore Robin Bishop, who garnered one solo block and six block assists.

"I was very pleased with Angela's offensive performance, Robin's defensive blocking performance and Kirstein's overall performance," Samford head coach Michelle Durban said. Once again our mental mistakes cost us the match, and we will be working on that in practice as we head into conference play this weekend."

Game one was close, going over the regulation 30 points, with South Alabama winning 35-33. Both teams tallied 21 digs, but the Bulldogs lost on errors, totaling six more attack errors than the Jaguars. Dempski had 6 kills and an attack percentage of .714, while USA's Whitney Sanders had 7 and Via Filipe earned 8.

In a thrilling game two, Samford again forced the game to go over the requisite 30 points, but lost 33-31. Sears had six kills in game two, as did freshman Ashley Klare. Sosnowski grossed four kills and two block assists.

The Bulldogs fought back to win game three 30-24, behind Sosnowski's six kills and Sears's seven. Dempski tacked on two more kills, and Sosnowski added two more block assists to her total.

Samford forced a fifth game when the team won the fourth game 30-27. Bishop showed her prowess at the net, with one solo block and three block assists. Sosnowski also assisted for two blocks and tallied four more kills, while Sears earned five kills of her own.

The Bulldogs were unable to keep the momentum from games three and four, dropping game five 8-15. South Alabama hit for a match-high .632, while Samford hit .250

The Bulldogs next return to action when they face the Austin Peay Lady Govs at home Friday night at 7, in the first Ohio Valley Conference match-up of the season.