Oct. 4, 2008
Final Stats
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University volleyball team defeated Appalachian State, 3-1 (25-15, 22-25, 25-18, 27-25), in a hard-fought match at the Pete Hanna Center on the Samford University campus Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs have now won their seventh straight game and are still undefeated in Southern Conference play.
Samford (14-2, 3-0 SoCon) held Appalachian State (4-13, 0-3 SoCon) to a .000 hitting percentage during the first set and posted 63 digs in the entire match, the most for the Bulldogs in a four-set match in 2008. Appalachian State out-blocked Samford, 8-5, but the Bulldogs hit .306 to the Mountaineers' .233.
"We knew Appalachian State was going to touch a lot of balls on the block," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "They are a very good blocking team, and we knew that would turn this match a little bit scrappy. I'm not very happy that we held them to a .000 hitting percentage in game one and then allowed them to hit .333 in game two. We really relaxed in game two, and because of that, we let them hang around and then they made some plays at the end of the game and took game two."
Courtney Gay turned in a great defensive effort with a season-high 24 digs while also grabbing four assists. Ashley Adams posted her sixth double-double on the season, knocking down 16 kills and 11 digs along with two block assists. Kirstein Sosnowski led the Bulldogs in hitting with 17 kills and only committing one error for a .533 percentage. Sosnowski also added two block assists. Sheriden Stangohr had 10 kills on 19 attempts with one error for a hitting percentage of .474 while also grabbing one assist, one dig and three block assists.
"I think that's the best match on the defensive side of the ball Courtney Gay has had all year," Schroeder said. "We blasted balls at them all week at practice defensively, so we were really looking for a good defensive effort. We got a lot of digs; now, we have to make the quality of digs a little better so our transition can allow us to put balls away really quickly and maybe win some matches that aren't quite this close."
Sara Sears grabbed eight kills, one dig and one block assist while Hillary Fountain grabbed her second double-double of the weekend by dishing out 53 assists and posting 10 digs while and matching a career-high seven kills, hitting. 500. She also served up two aces. Rachel Gadberry added five kills, two block assists and one assist while Samantha Bland had seven digs, one assists and one ace. Sarah Gardner posted eight digs, three assists, four aces and two kills while Katie Luckman added one dig.
The Bulldogs will wrap up weekend play on Sunday with a 2 p.m. match against Western Carolina in the Pete Hanna Center.
Samford 3, Appalachian State 1
Samford came out of the gate in set one and completely dominated the gameplan. The Bulldogs charged out to an 11-point lead quickly, sparked by a kill from Stangohr and capped of with a kill from Adams. The Bulldogs held the Mountaineers to a .000 hitting percentage as they grabbed only six kills in the set. Unfortunately, Appalachian State's first eight points were results of Samford errors, but Samford only allowed their opponents to score on them six times. After the Bulldogs pushed their lead out to 13, the Mountaineers fought to get within nine, but a kill by Sears ended the first set as Samford won, 25-15.
Gardner came out in set two and immediately put the Bulldogs on the board with an ace, but the Appalachian State answered right back with a kill. The Mountaineers soon took a three point advantage, but Samford quickly tied the score on kills by Sosnowski and Sears. With the score at 13-10, Appalachian State caught up to tie the score at 13. The two teams would fight through three more ties before the Mountaineers took the lead back. Appalachian State pulled out ahead by two points before Samford tied the score twice more, but the Mountaineers would eventually put the game away, 25-22.
Sears scored the first point for Samford in the third set, before Appalachian State grabbed two straight points. Samford answered back and tied the score, but it was a back-and-forth game for a while. Each team traded two-point leads before the score was tied again. Samford finally took the lead for good on back-to-back Mountaineer errors and kill by Fountain. With the score a 22-15, the Bulldogs allowed the Mountaineers only three more points, as Samford went on to win set three, 25-18, posting 73 percent in side-out efficiency.
The fourth and final set was a hard-fought battle. Samford jumped out to an early two-point lead on a kill by Adams and an ace by Fountain. That lead was soon pushed out to four before Appalachian State charged back to tie the score at 11. From that point on, it was a back-and-forth battle, neither team leading by more than two. There were twelve tie scores in this set alone. With the score tied a 15, the Mountaineers quickly took the advantage and went ahead by two. The Bulldogs would tie the score again several times while their opponents would just take the two-point lead back. Finally, Samford tied the score at 23 and took a one-point lead on a kill by Stangohr before the Appalachian State tied it again. This happened one more before a Mountaineer service error gave Samford the lead again and Adams finished it off, giving the Bulldogs the 27-25 win.
