Nov. 22, 2008
Final Stats
GREENSBORO, N.C. ---- The Samford University volleyball team had its conference title hopes dashed Saturday as they fell to Southern Division No. 2 seed Furman in a five-set thriller that went to extra play. The Bulldogs end their season with a 28-5 overall record, 16-2 in Southern Conference action, and winning the Northern Division title. Samford was the first team in Southern Conference history to win a division title in their first year as a member institution.
Furman took the first set, 25-13, while Samford responded with a big set two win, 25-19. The Bulldogs came out of the 10-minute break to win the third set, 25-21, and Furman forced the tiebreaker fifth set with a 25-19 win of the fourth set. The Paladins took the fifth set, 19-17.
"That was a great match and a lot of fun to be a part of," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "It's too bad that one team had to lose it. Furman's first contact was awesome and allowed their size to get at us. I'm proud of the girls though. We wanted to be sure to leave it all on the floors and I feel we did that.
Ashley Adams led the Bulldogs in hitting against the Paladins knocking down 24 kills while hitting .377 while one assist, one ace, 11 digs and one block assist. Sara Sears posted 12 kill and three digs while Kirstein Sosnowski had 10 kills, three block assists and one dig. Sheriden Stangohr had five kills, five block assists, one block solo and one assist while Rachael Gadberry had three kills and four block assists. Hillary Fountain dished out 51 assists while grabbing three kills, six digs, five block assists and one ace. Courtney Gay had 22 digs with one assist while Samantha Bland had nine digs and one assist.
"I will miss theses seniors and I am excited about the returners and how much they can improve," Schroeder said. "I'm already looking forward to next season."
The Bulldogs had their most successful season in the history of the Samford volleyball program. They posted their best record yet, 28-5, while also doing the best in conference play, 16-2. Samford also posted their first undefeated record at home and broke the school record for most consecutive wins (12) back in October.
Furman 3, Samford 2
Samford took the first point of set one on an attack error by Furman but a service error by Gardner gave the Paladins their first point and evened the score at one. Stangohr then knocked down a kill to go ahead by one but followed it up with a service error to tie the score again at two. Furman then went on an 8-3 run to take a five-point lead and forced Samford to take its first timeout of the set.
The Bulldogs were able to score six more points a few Furman errors, kills by Sears and Adams and a block solo by Stangohr but the Paladins managed to hold their lead and extend it to eight. After another Samford timeout, the Bulldogs could only score two more points on kills by Adams and Sosnowski before the Paladins went ahead by 12 and won the first set, 25-13.
Fountain tipped over a kill for the Bulldogs' first point of the second set, but Furman answered right back to tied the score at one. A service error by the Paladins gave Samford the one-point advantage but Furman came up with two consecutive blocks to take a 3-2 lead. Furman would then push their lead to two before Samford fought back to tie the score three times before taking a four-point lead on kills by Adams, Sears and Sosnowski and block by Fountain and Stangohr.
Furman called a timeout but Sears rattled off a kill to put the Bulldogs ahead by five. However, the Paladins were able to force Samford into taking a timeout by tacking on three straight points on a Samford serving error, an ace and block. After the Bulldogs' timeout, Samford gained back-to-back points on a Furman service error and a kill by Adams but then the Paladins racked up four straight points to tie the score at 18 and force Samford to take its final timeout of the set.
Samford rattled off two kills after the break by Adams and Gadberry to take a two-point lead and after Furman cut that lead to one, it committed back-to-back errors to give the Bulldogs a three-point advantage. Furman took a timeout but another error out of the break, an ace by Fountain and a kill by Adams, wrapped up set two and the Bulldogs went on to win, 25-19.
Gardner started things off for the Bulldogs in set three with three aces followed by a block by Stangohr and Fountain to give Samford an early 4-0 lead. Furman responded with back-to-back kills before going on a 7-5 run to take a one-point lead as Samford took a timeout. Furman came out of the timeout with a block but Samford fought back to tie the score at 11 before the Paladins pressed the lead back out to three. Samford then knocked down two kills and a block to tie the score at 15 and force Furman to call a timeout.
After the break, the Bulldogs went on a 4-0 run to take the lead at 19-15 as Furman called another timeout. Samford then pushed its lead out to six on kills by Adams and several Paladin errors before Furman cut the lead to three. Samford took a timeout and rattled off two more kills to take set three, 25-21.
A block by Gadberry and Fountain gave the Bulldogs their first point of the fourth set and back-to-back kills by Sosnowski gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead. Furman then cut the lead to one and went on a 10-3 run to take a three-point lead then after a timeout score seven points to Samford's five to take four point lead before the Bulldogs called another time out. Samford fought hard but the Paladins would go on to win set four, 25-19.
In the final tiebreaker set, Adams grabbed the first point for the Bulldogs on a kill. It was a back-and-forth game for the next four points as both teams fought though four ties. With the score tied at four, the Bulldogs went on a 4-1 run to take a three-point lead on on kills by Sosnowski, an ace by Adams and block by Gadberry, Stangohr and Sosnowski.
After the teams switched sides, the Paladins went on their own 4-1 run to tie the score at nine before taking a one-point lead on a Samford error. Samford called a timeout and answered back with two straight kills by Sears and Stangohr before Furman called a timeout. The real thrills started as both teams fought through six ties. However, the Paladins would go on to win the final set in extra points, 19-17.
