Oct. 29, 2008
Final Stats
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University volleyball team reached 22 wins for the 2008 season in Wednesday night's sweep of Chattanooga. The win gives the 2008 Bulldogs the school record for most wins in a season while it was also their 10th consecutive win at home. The Bulldogs still lead the North division of the Southern Conference.
Samford (22-3, 11-1 SoCon) served 86 percent in the whole match and out-dug the Mocs 35 to 29. The Bulldogs also hit .349 as a team and sided out 67 percent. In set one of the match, Samford held Chattanooga (13-13, 8-4 SoCon) to -.036 hitting, in set two to .227, and in set three to .000. The Bulldogs hit .321 in the first set, .520 in the second set, and .242 in the third set.
"That was our best serving match all year," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "I'm very happy with our first contact. We kept the best defensive team in the conference to less than 10 digs a game. It was a great team effort and it's great for this team to have broken the school record for season wins."
Sheriden Stanoghr led the Bulldogs in hitting over the Mocs as she knocked down seven kills off 15 attempts with no errors, hitting .467. Stangohr also had one assist, one ace, two digs and four block assists. Ashley Adams had a team-high kills with 12, hitting .385 while grabbing one ace, two digs and three block assists. Sara Sears had nine kills, two digs and one block assist while Rachel Gadberry had five kills and three block assists. Kirstein Sosnowski had six kill and one block assist.
Courtney Gay led the Bulldogs defensively with 11 digs while grabbing one ace and one assists and Sarah Gardner posted two aces and six digs. Samantha Bland led Samford in aceds with three while also having seven digs. Hillary Fountain had 36 assists, five digs, two block assists and one ace and Katie Luckman served up an ace.
The Bulldogs will wrap up play at home this weekend as they host Georgia Southern and Davidson on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Match play on Saturday begins at 7 p.m. following the football game against Furman and Sunday at 2 p.m. Prior to the match on Sunday, the Samford volleyball team will honor its five seniors in a pre-match ceremony.
Samford 3, Chattanooga 0
A Samford error gave Chattanooga the first point of the match, but Stangohr quickly answered back with a kill to put the Bulldogs on the board. The Mocs then scored three consecutive points to go ahead by three but two UTC errors got the Bulldogs back within one. A service error by Gardner gave the Mocs a two point advantage but a block by Adams and Stangohr and a kill by Gadberry tied things up at five.
There were three more tied scores before Samford too the lead on a kill by Sosnowski. An ace by Gay, a kill by Sears and a Moc error pushed the Bulldogs ahead by four and forced a Chattanooga timeout. After the timeout, Samford went on a 5-1 run sparked by a block by Stangohr and Sears. Another UTC error had the Mocs thinking about a timeout again and out of the break, Bland extended the Bulldog lead to 10 with a service ace. The Bulldogs continued to dominate and with an 11-point lead, Samford score three consecutive points to win the first set, 25-12.
Chattanooga scored the first point again in the second set but Stangohr again knocked down a kill to get Samford on the board. It was a back-and-forth game for a bit until Samford tied the score at four on a kill by Sears. A block by Gadberry and Sosnowski followed by a kill by Sosnowski and a Moc error gave the Bulldogs a three-point advantage, but two Samford errors soon had UTC back within one. However, soon the Bulldogs were leading by eight after aces by Gardner, Fountain, Luckman and Adams, a block by Gadberry and Fountain, and a kill by Sears.
After a Chattanooga timeout, Sears and Sosnowski knocked down kills to go ahead by 10 before Chattanooga answered back with two kills of their own to get within eight. A kill by Adams made it a nine-point game and a block by Fountain and Stangohr earned the Bulldogs a set point. The Bulldogs failed to get the set point on a service error by Bland but Sears knocked down a kill on the next pass to give the Bulldogs the 25-15 win in set two.
Again, the Mocs took the first point of the third set and again Stangohr drilled one over the net for the first Bulldog point. A kill by Sears had the Bulldogs up by one before the Mocs scored back-to-back points to take the lead. Sears tied the score at three with a kill but a service error by Gardner had UTC back up by one. With three consecutive points on kill sby Stangohr and Adams and an ace by Stangohr, the Bulldogs stole the lead back from the Mocs and went up by two. However, Chattanooga answered back and tied the score before they took over by two.
Two kills by Adams and Sosnowski tied the score at 10, and the Bulldogs fought through two more ties to take a three point lead on three consecutive errors by the Mocs. After a Chattanooga timeout, the Bulldogs took over and scored five straight points on two UTC errors, an ace by Gardner, a block by Stangohr and Adams and a kill by Adams to go ahead by eight. Two Samford errors brought the Mocs within six but soon Samford was up by eight and was face-to-face with a match point. With the score at 24-16, Chattanooga scored three straight points to keep the Bulldogs from gaining that last point but finally a kill by Rachel Gadberry wrapped up the match and gave Samford the 25-19 third set win.
