Sept. 5, 2008
KANSAS CITY, Mo. ---- The Samford University volleyball team grabbed its first win at the Kangaroo Klassic hosted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City Friday afternoon as they swept Arkansas State in the third match of the tournament. The Bulldogs are now 3-1 on the season and put an end to the Red Wolves' perfect record, sending them to 4-1 on the season.
"This was a fabulous team effort by the Bulldogs today," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "We are going to play many matches where fighting for the last few points is critical. We fought off some set points and executed to win. I am very happy with how we played this match."
Senior middle blocker Kirstein Sosnowski led the Bulldogs with a season high 14 kills and .591 hitting percentage, along with one assist and three block assists. Senior outside hitter Sara Sears followed behind with 10 kills, hitting .217 while grabbing two digs and one block assist. Junior middle blocker Sheriden Stangohr also contributed eight kills, hitting .438, and posted three block assists while sophomore outside hitter Samantha Bland grabbed seven kills, 11 digs, an ace and a block assist.
Sophomore setter Hillary Fountain dished out 37 assists, while hitting .400 with two kills on five attempts. She also posted five digs and assisted two blocks. Red-shirt freshman middle blocker Rachel Gadberry led the Bulldogs in blocking assisting four blocks, over half of the Bulldogs' total. She also grabbed three kills and one assist. Senior Libero Courtney Gay posted 11 digs and two assists while junior defensive specialist Sarah Gardner grabbed 10 digs with one ace.
Samford will play one more match this evening in the first day of the UMKC Kangaroo Klassic. The Bulldogs will take on the host team at 7 p.m. Fans can follow the action via live stats or subscribe to ROO Vision to watch live video streaming of the match. Both of these options are accessible through link on the volleyball schedule page on www.umkckangaroos.com. A full recap and results will be available on www.samfordsports.com upon the completion of the match.
Samford 3, Arkansas State 0
Set one started with each team committing an error and getting a kill to tie that score at two. However, Samford would score three straight points on an ASU error, a kill by Sosnowski and a block by Sosnowski and Stangohr. The Red Wolves soon came up with three points of their own to tie the score again at five, but the Bulldogs took over and soon pushed their lead to six on back-to-back blocks by Sosnowski and Gadberry. Samford led by as much as seven, going on to win the first set, 25-18.
Samford took the first point of the second set on a kill by Bland, but ASU scored two consecutive points to take the lead. The Bulldogs quickly tied the score and took over but the Red Wolves returned the favor and took a two-point lead. Samford soon caught up and took its own two-point lead with an ace by Gardner, an ASU error, and a kill by Stangohr. The Bulldogs stretched that lead to four and then to six, but ASU came barreling back to cut that lead in half. However, Samford fought off the Red Wolves and won game two on a kill by Sosnowski.
Set three began with a Samford two-point lead on a kill by Bland and an ASU error. The Bulldogs pushed the lead to three on another error and a kill by Gadberry after giving the Red Wolves their first point of the set. However, ASU fought back to tie the score seven times before taking the lead for the first time in the match at 20-19. The Red Wolves held as much as a three-point lead while Samford fought to get back on top. The Bulldogs held ASU at three match points before finally scoring three straight points on a kill by Fountain and back-to-back kills by Stangohr to win the final set, 29-27.
