Sept. 12, 2008
Final Stats
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ---- The Samford University volleyball team won a hard fought match with Murray State Friday evening, taking three out of five games (25-19, 26-28, 26-28, 25-22, 15-8). The Bulldogs (7-2, 0-0 SoCon) came back from a 2-1 deficit and grabbed their seventh win of the season taking a 4-3 lead in the overall series with Murray State.
"I have mixed feelings about tonight's match," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "On one hand, after game one we allowed Murray State to turn the match into their type of match. We lost our identity and had to battle when we maybe shouldn't have had to. On the other hand, we battled, we faced adversity, we got our backs to a wall and responded with a solid game four and a great game five."
Ashley Adams broke a school record for kills in a single match in the contest against Murray State. Adams posted 31kills and grabbed her third double-double on the season adding 14 kills, while hitting .435 and grabbing one assist. Kirstein Sosnowski led the Bulldogs in hitting with .500, having only one error on 24 attempts and grabbing one kill. She also added two digs and two block assists. Leading the Bulldogs in digs was Courtney Gay, posting 18 digs while having one kill and one ace.
Hillary Fountain had a team-high 65 assists with 14 digs, making that her first double-double of the season. She also had five kills, five block assists and two aces. Sheriden Stangohr had a team-high seven blocks, two solo and five assisted. She also added 11 kills, hitting .308, five digs, one assists and one ace. Sara Sears knocked down 13 kills with three digs, one assists and two block assists. Rachel Gadberry had six kills, four block assists, one assist and on dig while Samantha Bland added nine digs and one assist. Sarah Gardner posted 11 digs, two aces and one assist while Katie Luckman added three digs and one kill.
The Bulldogs will wrap up play in the Crimson Tide Invitational tomorrow at 11 a.m., when they take on the Bulls of South Florida. Follow the action via live stats on www.rolltide.com and find a full recap and results on www.samfordsports.com following the completion of the match.
Samford 3, Murray State 2
Samford grabbed the first point of the match on an ace and quickly jumped out to a six-point lead. Murray State took a timeout but the Bulldogs continued to dominate the first set and pushed their lead out to eight. The Racers tried to catch up but could only get within five before Samford ran away with it and won, 25-19.
In the second set, the tables were turned. It was Murray State who looked to be dominating the action. The Racers blasted out to a five-point lead until Samford took a timeout and came out to cut the lead to two. However, Murray State stretched the lead to seven before Samford would make another run, this time tying the score at 22. The Racers took a timeout and the teams would battle for the final points, with Murray State winning, 28-26.
Murray State dominated most of the third set after gaining a three-point lead right out of the gate. They extended that lead to nine before Samford started to climb back into the game and cut the lead and tie the score at 17. The Bulldogs kept it close after that and made the Racers fight for every point, but it would be Murray State who would walk away with set three, 28-26.
The Racers jumped out to another 3-0 lead in the fourth set but Samford quickly jumped back on top on a kill by Bland followed by back-to-back kills by Adams and a couple of Murray State errors. The Bulldogs extended their lead to five and maintained that lead for most of the game until the Racers got back within one at 20-19. After a brief Samford timeout, Murray State went on a 3-0 run to tie the score but Samford would hold on to win fourth set, 25-22.
Samford jumped out to a 3-0 lead this time scoring three consecutive kills to open the fifth tie-break set. The Racers soon got on the board and were trailing by two points. That would be as close as Murray State would get as the Bulldogs pushed their lead out to eight points and took set five, 15-8.
