Nov. 3, 2007
Box Score
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. ---- The Samford volleyball team closed out its final Ohio Valley Conference road trip with a loss to Southeast Missouri Saturday evening. The Bulldogs (14-13, 9-9 OVC) fell to the Redhawks (18-11, 13-5 OVC) in four games (30-20, 27-30, 27-30, 17-30).
Samford was led once again by sophomore middle blocker Sheriden Stangohr. Stangohr posted seven of the Bulldogs' 10 blocks (two solo and five assisted) while also grabbing a team-high 17 kills, two digs and hitting .455. Junior outside hitter Sara Sears and senior middle blocker Angela Dempski followed behind with 15 kills each while Sears added 11 digs to post her second double-double of the weekend and her 14th of the season. Sears also head two assists while Dempski hit .300 and had three digs, one block solo and one block assist.
Freshman setter Hillary Fountain led the Bulldogs in hitting (.545) and assists (53), and grabbed a career-high seven kills, seven digs, one ace and two block assists. Freshman outside hitter Samantha Bland just missed a double-double on the night as she had nine kills and 16 digs with three assists and three aces. Junior middle blocker Kirstein Sosnowski posted three kills, two digs and one assists while also have four block assists and one block solo. Junior defensive specialist Sarah Gardner led her team in digs with 20 and had one kill, one assist and one ace. Junior Libero Courtney Gay posted 15 digs and contributed two assists.
Samford returns home next weekend, Nov. 9-10, to play its final two matches of the regular season in the brand new Pete Hanna Center. The Bulldogs will host Eastern Kentucky on Friday night at 7 p.m. before honoring their two seniors, Dempski and Robin Bishop, prior to the match against Morehead State on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Southeast Missouri 3, Samford 1
After Southeast Missouri grabbed the first point of the match, Samford jumped on top by one with the help of back-to-back kills by Fountain and Dempski. After fighting through five ties, the Bulldogs took over for good, charging ahead on kills by Sears, Sosnowski, Demspki and Stanoghr and an ace by Bland to take a five-point lead at 14-9. The Redhawks cut the lead but Samford push it back out to seven before taking off and eventually winning game one, 30-20.
The Redhawks took the early lead in game two, go ahead by as much as three before the Bulldogs tied the game at six on a block by Sosnowski and took the one-point lead (7-6) with the help of a kill by Bland. A service error by Gay tied the game at seven but Samford soon took over and led by as much as five. SEMO fought back to tie the game at 20 and from there the Redhawks took control, finally winning 30-27.
With each team having won one game each, game three could possibly determine which way the momentum would swing for the rest of the match. SEMO grabbed the first point of game three, but quickly committed an error to put Samford on the board as well. The Bulldogs then scored four consecutive points with a kill by Fountain, a block by Dempski and Fountain, a kill by Sears and an ace by Bland. The Redhawks answered back, but Samford maintained the lead while extending it to five on block by Stangohr and Fountain. SEMO soon scored four straight points to shave the lead to one, but Samford continued to charge ahead and control the game. After fighting back to tie the game at 20, the Redhawks took over and eventually won game three, 30-27.
SEMO jumped out to a quick three-point lead before Samford could score its first point on a kill by Dempski. The Bulldogs would then score only 15 of its 17 game four points as the Redhawks completely took control of the game. With the score at 19-15, SEMO would go on a 11-2 run to finish off the game, 30-17, and capture the match.
