Oct. 19, 2008
Final Stats
CHARLESTON, S.C. ---- The Samford University volleyball team swept the Citadel in Sunday afternoon match at the McAlister Fieldhouse on the Citadel campus. The Bulldogs took the match with score of 25-18, 25-17, 25-14. The match was the last on a road trip before Samford hosts a five-match homestand.
Samford (19-3, 8-1 SoCon) had only one attack error in the second set of the match and hit a team average of .469 and posted a side-out efficiency of 83 percent. The Bulldogs held The Citadel (6-15, 0-9 SoCon) to a .058 match hitting percentage and a .000 hitting percentage in the third set.
"Coming off our first SoCon loss, I thought our girls responded well and executed," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "This weekend has shown us a lot in the senses that there are details that we still need to work on in order to compete in this conference, but this was a good win for us today."
Kirstein Sosnowski led the Bulldogs with 11 kills and a career-high .769 hitting percentage, only committing one error in the whole match while grabbing two block assists. Ashley Adams added nine kills on 20 attempts with zero errors for a hitting percentage of .450. She also had seven digs, two block assists and one set assist. Rachel Gadberry knocked down nine kills and had three block assists and one dig while Samantha Bland and Hillary Fountain posted six kills each.
Fountain dished out 32 assists for the Bulldogs while hitting .545 and having one assist, one ace and three digs while Bland also had six digs, one ace and one assist. Sheriden Stangohr had five kill, one block solo and one block assist while Courtney Gay led the Bulldogs in digs with 13. Sarah Gardner posted four digs, one assist and one ace while Katie Luckman had one ace and one dig.
The Bulldogs are back home for a five-match homestand which will include Senior Weekend and the final home matches. The swing begins next Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 25-26, with match-ups against Elon and UNC-Greensboro, respectively.
Samford will then host Chattanooga for a mid-week match on Wednesday, Oct. 29, and then will play its final matches at home the next weekend before finishing out the season on the road. The Bulldogs will face off with Georgia Southern and Davidson on Nov. 1-2, respectively. They will honor Samford's five senior players before the match on that Sunday.
Samford 3, Citadel 0
Samford took an early 2-0 lead after the Citadel committed an error right out of the gate and Fountain served up an ace. A Samford blocking error gave the Citadel its first point of the match, but Gadberry answered right back with a kill. Another Citadel error stretched the Samford Bulldog lead to three, but the Citadel surged back to tie the score at seven. An ace and a kill gave the Citadel its first lead of the match, but Samford fought back to take over by four soon after several Citadel errors. A block by Sosnowski and Gadberry pushed the Samford lead out to five and Samford soon led by six after a kill by Adams.
The Citadel took a timeout and came out of the break and quickly scored on a service error by Bland. But Bland quickly made up for that mistake with a big kill to take the Samford six-point lead back. A Citadel error gave Samford an eight-point lead, but the Citadel Bulldogs climbed back within two on back-to-back kills. However, Gadberry ended the set with a kill, giving Samford the 25-18 victory.
Adams scored a kill to get Samford on the board first in the second set, but the Citadel answered back quickly tying the score up at one. Back-to-back kills by Gadberry put the Samford Bulldogs ahead by two and the score difference was no more than two points for a while. Samford took a three-point lead on a Citadel error and two more errors by the opponents soon had Samford at a five-point advantage. After Citadel timeout, the Citadel came within four points but Samford pushed it back out to seven on kills by Bland and Sosnowski and another Citadel error.
The Citadel Bulldogs took another timeout but came out of the break and added another point to the Samford tally with an error. The Samford Bulldogs led by eight, and soon by eleven, with credit going to a kill by Fountain and a service ace by Bland. The Citadel climbed within eight points again but that would be all as Samford would win set two, 25-17 on a kill by Sosnowski.
Adams got the Samford Bulldogs on the board first again in set three and back-to-back blocks gave Samford a 3-0 advantage over the Citadel early. The Citadel climbed back within two on a Samford error and tied the score with a block and an ace. Samford took the lead back with a kill by Gadberry, a Citadel error and a block by Stangohr and soon the Samford Bulldogs led by six on three consecutive kills by Adams.
The Citadel took a timeout but Adams came out and stretched Samford's lead to seven with a kill. The Citadel fought back but Samford extended its lead to nine on several Citadel errors. The Citadel Bulldogs soon got within six but the Samford Bulldogs were not willing to relinquish their lead and went on to take a nine-point lead and win the third set 25-14.
