Oct. 11, 2008
Final Stats
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University volleyball team extended its current win streak to 11 Saturday night with a 3-0 sweep of the Furman Paladins. The win is the first for the Bulldogs over Furman in Samford volleyball history after an eight match drought in past years.
Samford (17-2, 6-0 SoCon), is ranked fifth in the nation in hitting percentage, had an 89 percent sideout efficiency in the final set, hitting .429 as a team. Furman (11-8, 4-2 SoCon), the nation's 40th-best blocking squad, out-blocked the Bulldogs, 5-3.
"This was a solid effort from 0-0 in set one to 25-19 in set three," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "I think our serve-receive passing, again, was exceptional. Courtney Gay, Sarah Gardner and Samantha Bland are doing great job with that. Hillary (Fountain) is making great decisions because the passes are so easy, that she can make her decisions and all of it just clicks on all cylinders."
Rachel Gadberry led the Bulldogs in hitting, posting a career-high .800 hitting percentage. She knocked do wn nine kills on 10 attempts, committing only one error. She also added one block assist. Kirstein Sosnowski was just behind, posting a .533 average and knocking down 10 kills. She also added two block assists and one dig. Ashley Adams posted a .367 hitting percentage with 13 kills, six digs and one ace. Sheriden Stangohr added seven kills and two block assists.
Hillary Fountain dished out 41 assists with three digs, two kills and two service aces. Courtney Gay and Samantha Bland both posted nine digs. Gay also grabbed one ace and one assist while Bland knocked down a kill. Sara Sears had four kills, one dig and one block assist while Sarah Gardner had seven digs, two aces and two assists.
"We had two players with nine digs, Sam and Courtney, and that makes me feel really good because we've been working really hard on defense," Schroeder said. "If we bring that along, we are going to be a very tough team to beat all year."
The Bulldogs will be back in action tomorrow afternoon as they take on Wofford in a 2 p.m. match at Pete Hanna Center. A full recap and results will be available upon completion of the match on www.samfordsports.com.
Samford 3, Furman 0
Furman led off of the first set, scoring on a Samford error, but Stangohr quickly knocked down a kill to even the score. A service error by the Bulldogs gave the Paladins another one-point advantage, but Samford tied the score and took over on kills by Adams and Gadberry. After five more ties and three more lead changes, Samford began to pull away. With the score at 12-10, Samford took a timeout and came back to score three straight points on a kill by Gadberry and back-to-back aces by Fountain too take a five-point lead. Furman then took a timeout and went on an 8-4 run to tie the score at 19. After a Bulldog timeout, Samford only allow the Paladins to score three more times before taking the first set, 25-22.
The Paladins again took the early lead in set two, but that would be the only led for Furman in the set. Samford quickly got on the board with a kill by Adams and took a one-point lead by Sosnowski. The Paladins tied the score but Samford answered back and soon pulled out to a five-point lead on kills by Sears and Stangohr and a couple of Furman errors. With the score at 12-7, the Paladins went on a 5-1 run to get within one point. However, the Bulldogs fought back pushed the lead out to six on several Paladin errors, a kill by Sosnowski, a block by Stangohr and Sears, and a service ace by Gardner. After a Furman timeout, the Paladins cut the lead to five but Samford charged ahead and went on to win the second set, 25-17.
A Furman error landed Samford its first point of the third set. A Bulldog blocking error evened the score but a kill by Sears put Samford back on top. Two service errors by Bulldogs evened the score again but kills by Adams and Gadberry allowed Samford to take the lead once more. After the Paladins tied the score at four, Samford pushed its lead out to three on a kill by Gadberry, an ace by Adams, and a block by Sosnowski and Gadberry. Furman fought back but Samford eventually extended its lead to six on kills by Adams and Gadberry. A block by Sosnowksi and Stanoghr stretched the lead to seven, and Furman fought back to get with four, but Samford continued to forge ahead and the Bulldogs went on to win set three, 25-19, on a Furman service error.
