Oct. 24, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University volleyball team will host Elon and UNC Greensboro this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 24-25. The two matches occur as a part of the Samford Homecoming Week Festivities and are the first two of a five-match home swing for the Bulldogs.
Samford (19-3, 8-1 SoCon) comes off a weekend in which its 12-match win streak was broken when the College of Charleston handed the Bulldogs their first conference loss of the season. The two teams had been the only undefeated members of the Southern Conference until two weeks ago when the College of Charleston was knocked off by UNC Greensboro in five sets. College of Charleston then swept Samford last Saturday but the Bulldogs bounced back with a sweep of The Citadel.
"After Charleston, this team was ready for me to explode and rant," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "The point I tried to make with them was that the College of Charleston match was a midterm test and after it, the teacher told us that what we got wrong was going to be on the final. Now we have to go study that stuff so we can pass our final."
UNC Greensboro (15-7, 7-2 SoCon) was picked to finish first in the North division in the preseason polls while Elon (15-10, 4-5 SoCon) was picked to finish third, just ahead of Samford. Currently in the league standings, Samford leads the North division, trailed closely by UNC Greensboro with Elon in fourth behind Chattanooga in third.
The Bulldogs committed to work hard this week to make sure they stay at the top of the standings. A long week of practice has hopefully prepared them for this weekend's two matches, which will be followed up by three more matches in a five day span. Samford will play Chattanooga at home next Wednesday, followed by Senior Weekend, Nov. 1-2, as it hosts Georgia Southern and Davidson.
"This week in practice we have focused on what we can do to make it hard for teams to score on us," Schroeder said. "We felt we served the ball well, could side-out at a high percentage and have increased our back row defense. This week we have worked to be better with our front row defense and get back to serving tough and siding out over 70 percent."
UNC Greensboro comes into this weekend off their fourth consecutive win. The Spartans defeated Georgia Southern in a sweep on Monday and beat Davidson in four sets on Sunday. Elon lost a tight five-set match to Davidson last Saturday and was swept by Georgia Southern on Sunday.
"These are two very big North division opponents that we will face this weekend," Schroeder said, "both who had received votes to win the championship in the preseason polls. It is going to take a very good week of practice, which we are well under way with, and then a lot of determination out of our kids to succeed at the things we practiced. Elon is struggling right now with three losses in a row, and I am sure they are concentrating on what a big win it would be at Samford for them and how it would right their ship."
The Spartans are led by this week's SoCon Player of the Week Kayren Finney. Finney's hit .636 last week in UNCG's two wins and had back-to-back double-digit kills outings along with nine blocks on the weekend. The sophomore middle blocker leads her team in blocks with 89, while ranking third in the league in the same category. UNCG's junior libero, Catherine Hanners, leads the conference and is seventh in the country in service aces (0.55 saps).
The Phoenix is led by outside hitter/middle blocker Caroline Lemke. The freshman leads her team with 2.68 kills per set and 0.78 blocks per set. Also senior defensive specialist Kelley Blakewood is sixth in the conference and leads her team in digs with 4.21 digs per set.
Ashley Adams continues to lead the Bulldogs by knocking down 4.33 kills per set. The senior outside hitter is 16th in the nation in kills per set and 48th in hitting percentage (.360). Senior middle blocker Kirstein Sosnowsk leads her team in hitting with a .364 hitting percentage. She is ranked 43rd in the country in that category. Hillary Fountain slid one spot to third in the country in assists per set (11.93) and is 11th this week in aces per set (0.54). Sarah Gardner is tied for 35th in the same category with 0.47 aces per set.
As a team, the Bulldogs are ranked fifth in hitting percentage (.301), 12th in assists per set (13.16), 14th in kills per set (14.18), 15th in aces per set (1.80) and tied for 12th in win-loss percentage (.864) with a 19-3 record.
Match play with the Spartans begins Saturday evening at 7 p.m., following Samford's Homecoming football game against The Citadel. The Bulldogs will then meet up with Elon Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., to close out the weekend. Admission to the matches is free and a full recap and results can be found on www.samfordsports.com upon the completion of each match.
