Oct. 8, 2008
Final Stats
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ---- The Samford University volleyball team grabbed its 12th consecutive win on Wednesday at Chattanooga. The Bulldogs took the match in three straight games (25-15, 27-25, 25-19). Samford is now 16-2 overall, 5-0 in SoCon play, and continues its longest win streak in Samford history, while Chattanooga falls to 8-11, 3-2 SoCon.
The Bulldogs ran away with the first set, but Chattanooga fought hard in the final two sets, making Samford work for the win.
"We came into a hornet's nest tonight," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "UTC, behind their libero, playing inspired volleyball, defensively."
Chattanooga's libero Lara Newberry broke the NCAA all-time record for digs in set two of the match, notching 2,799 digs. However, Samford libero Courtney Gay outdug Newberry, 24-23.
"I'm very proud of Courtney Gay, who led the way for our defense to match theirs and then out offense tipped the scales," Schroeder said.
Gay added one assist to her 24 digs while Adams led the Bulldogs offensively, knocking down 20 kills and hitting .359 while having five digs. Stangohr and Sears both posted seven kills. Stangohr also had three two digs and five block assists while Sears added one dig and one block solo. Kirstein Sosnowski knocked down eight kills with one block solo, and Samantha Bland grabbed 10 digs and three aces. Hillary Fountain dished out 43 assists while grabbing one kill, three aces and four block assists. Rachel Gadberry had three kills while Sarah Gardner dug five balls and serve three aces.
The Bulldogs will be back at home at the Pete Hanna Center this weekend, Oct. 11-12, as they host two more Southern Conference foes. Samford will meet up with Furman at 7 p.m. on Saturday night after the Samford football game against Appalachian State. The Bulldogs will then wrapped up weekend play with a 2 p.m. match with Wofford on Sunday.
Samford 3, Chattanooga 0
In set one, Adams put Samford on the board with a kill. Chattanooga evened the score but, Adams answered back with another kill. A UTC error and an ace by Fountain gave the Bulldogs a three-point lead but soon the Mocs evened the score. Both teams fought through two more ties before Samford took a four-point on kills by Sears, Fountain and Stangohr and an ace by Bland. The Mocs climbed back within two but the Bulldogs soon pulled out to a nine-point lead. UTC called a timeout but Samford was not done as they led by as much a 12 in the final third of the set and went on to win, 25-15.
Chattanooga grabbed the first two points of the second set, but Sears knocked down a kill to get Samford on the board and Stangohr and Fountain blocked a ball to tie up the score. Back-to-back aces by Gardner and a block by Stangohr and Fountain gave the Bulldogs a three-point lead and soon Samford was up by four. The Mocs fought back to tie the score but Samford pulled ahead again by four points. After a UTC timeout, the Mocs climbed back within one point before Samford called its own timeout. The Mocs tied it up on the next point after the timeout and it was a back-and-fourth game for the duration of the set. With the score tied at 24, Samford called another timeout to talk things over. UTC took a brief lead but Adams tied things up with a kill and Sosnowski got the lead back for the Bulldogs. A UTC error was committed on the next point and Samford won set two, 27-25.
Two kills by Gadberry and Adams gave Samford the early two-point lead in set three. A Samford error gave the Mocs their first point but the Mocs returned the favor by adding a third point to Samford's tally. A kill by UTC cut the lead to one but a UTC error gave Samford another two-point lead. The Mocs grabbed two more points to tie it up and soon grabbed another two-point lead. With a kill by Sears and an ace by Gardner the Bulldogs tied the score at seven and took over by two on kills by Stangohr and Adams. UTC tied the score again and went ahead by two before Samford tied the score again. The Bulldogs soon went up by three and then went ahead by six, winning the third set, 25-19.
