Oct. 5, 2008
Final Stats
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University volleyball nabbed its ninth straight win Sunday afternoon in a 3-0 victory of Western Carolina. The win marks the longest win streak in Samford volleyball history since the 1991 squad posted eight wins in a row. The Bulldogs posted their eighth win on Saturday with a 3-1 win over Appalachian State.
"This weekend was good for us because we are starting to realize that teams are going to try to out-defend what we are doing," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "Western Carolina just dug a lot of balls and kept a lot of balls alive hoping that we would get frustrated and break down. It is a good weekend for us, moving forward, in that we didn't have very many breakdowns but we also start to realize what type of match we have to play in the Southern Conference to be successful."
The Bulldogs (15-2, 4-0 SoCon) held the Catamounts (3-14, 1-3 SoCon) to a .048 hitting percentage in the first set and knocked down an 87 percent side-out efficiency as well. Samford led throughout the entire first set and only trailed once in each of the last two. As a team, the Bulldogs had 44 digs, the second most for the squad in a three-set match so far this season. They also posted 53 kills and 49 digs, the most for the team in a three-set match this year as well.
"I'm very happy with our defense," Schroeder said. "We tried to take our defense, this week, and work very hard at it, because it has been our weakness and we want to turn it into our strength. We don't want to just get better at it; we want to turn it into a strength. Courtney Gay very good defensive weekend and so did all of our defensive specialists."
Gay led the Bulldogs in digs with 13 while posting an .875 receiving percentage and also grabbing two assists. She was followed by Ashley Adams who added 12 digs to her 18 kills for her seventh double-double of the season. Adams also posted a .457 hitting percentage along with one assist and one block assist. Rachel Gadberry led her team in hitting with a career-high .692 hitting percentage, knocking down nine kills on 13 attempts with zero errors. She also grabbed one block assist.
Sheriden Stangohr posted nine kills, three aces, one assist, one dig and one block assist while Kirstein Sosnowski added seven digs, hitting .400, and knocking down one block solo. Sara Sears grabbed eight kills and two digs while Hillary Fountain dished out 45 assists, four digs, two aces and two kills. Sarah Gardner had seven digs and Samantha Bland had five.
Samford is back in action early this week as it hits the road for a mid-week match against Chattanooga on Wednesday, Oct. 8. Match play begins at 6 p.m. CT. The Bulldogs will then return home to host Furman and Wofford on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11-12. The Furman match will be at 7 p.m., following Samford's football game against Appalachian State on Saturday and the Wofford match will be at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. For more information, go to www.samfordsports.com.
Samford 3, Western Carolina 0
Gadberry started things off for Samford in the first set with back-to-back kills to put the Bulldogs up 2-0. An error by Western Carolina gave Samford a three-point lead, but then a Samford error landed the Catamounts their first point of the match. Sosnowski and Sears answered back with kills and the Bulldogs soon led by four. Samford then took a five-point lead on a huge block by Sosnowski then led by six after a kill by Adams before the Catamounts took a timeout with the score at 15-9. Out of the break, the Catamounts scored quickly but Samford then went on a 10-5 run to take the first set, 25-15.
Western Carolina came out in set two and posted two quick points. However, a kill by Stangohr and an ace by Fountain quickly tied the score. WCU took another two-point lead but the Bulldogs tied the score again and took over. The Catamounts kept it for a while before Samford went on a 7-3 run to take a seven-point lead. WCU fought to get back within three several times but Samford pushed the lead back out to five on three kills by Adams and two kills by Sosnowski. After a Catamount timeout, WCU went on a 4-1 run to cut the lead to one but Samford took a timeout and came back with a kill by Sears to get a set point. An attack error by WCU gave the Bulldogs the 25-22 win.
The Catamounts came out in set three and took the first point on a service ace. However, that would be their last lead of the match as Samford quickly took a four-point lead on kills by Stangohr, Sears and Adams and an ace by Stangohr. WCU fought to get back within one at 14-13, but the Bulldogs took over and went on a 10-3 run to end the match. Back-to-back kills by Gadberry and a kill by Sosnowski gave Samford the 25-16 win of game three and wrapped up the Bulldogs' ninth straight victory.
