Oct. 25, 2009
Box Score
GREENVILLE, S.C. ---- The Samford University volleyball team fell at Furman Sunday in a four sets. The Bulldogs fought hard but were not able to hand Furman its first conference loss of the season. The Bulldogs fall to 14-11 overall, 8-3 in the Southern Conference while Furman improves to 17-3 overall, 10-0 in the league play.
Rachel Gadberry led the Bulldogs with 11 kills while tallying three block assists and Sheriden Stangohr posted 10 kills and seven block assists along with three digs. Allie Bettinger and Elizabeth Neisler both posted nine kills while Neisler led the Bulldogs in hitting with a .400 attack percentage. Bettinger also posted two digs, one assists and one ace while Neisler added three digs and three block assists.
Hillary Fountain dished out 34 assists while grabbing seven digs, five kills, three block assists and three aces. Alexis Bauer led the Bulldogs in digs with 11 while posting four assists and Casey Garvey added nine digs with four assists and two kills. Shelby Brandon knocked down three kills while grabbing six block assists and four digs, and Sarah Gardner had four digs and one assist while Alicia Roth added one dig.
Samford will close its five-match road swing next weekend, Oct. 31 - Nov. 1, as it travels to North Carolina to take on UNC Greensboro and Elon.
Furman 3, Samford
Samford opened up the first set with a block by Brandon and Stangohr to get on the board first, but a Bulldog error evened up the score and an ace by Furman put the Paladins ahead by one. However, Samford answered back with two consecutive kills by Stangohr and Neisler to go ahead, 3-2, before Furman went on a 5-1 run to take a three-point lead. Back-to-back kills by Bettinger cut the lead to one, but the Paladins tacked on four straight points to go ahead by five and force Samford to take a timeout.
Out of the break, Furman added three more points to stretch its lead to eight, but Samford answered back with four straight on two Paladins errors, a block by Gadberry and Brandon and an ace by Fountain to but the lead in half. After Furman grabbed one more point, the Bulldogs scored three more times to get within two before the Paladins called a timeout. However, Furman put together a 6-1 run to push the lead back out to five and force Samford to burn its last timeout. Samford fought back to get within four, but Furman would go on to win set one, 25-19.
Stangohr knocked down a kill to get the Bulldogs on the board first in the second set but Furman answered back with a kill of its own to even the score. The score would be tied two more times before two Paladin errors gave Samford a two-point lead. Furman went on a 3-1 run to tie the score at six before Brandon took the lead back for the Bulldogs with a kill, but the Paladins would answer back with a kill to tie the score at seven. Samford would then go on a 6-2 run to go ahead by four, but Furman answered with a 4-1 run of its own to tie the score at 14.
Samford answered with two kills by Gadberry and two aces by Fountain to go up by four, but Furman knocked down four straight kills to tie the score at 18 and force Samford to take a timeout. The next stretch was a back-and-forth battle as Furman would take the lead and then Samford would tie it and vice versa. However, with the score tie at 20, Gadberry and Bettinger knocked down two kills which forced Furman to burn a timeout. Out of the break, Stangohr and Brandon came up with a big block to put the Bulldogs ahead by three, and despite Furman's fight, Samford would go on to win, 25-22.
Furman opened the third set with two kills before Stangohr and Neisler came up with a block to get the Bulldogs on the board. The Paladins then pushed their lead out to three before Samford fought back to tie the score at eight on a kill by Neisler and a block by Brandon and Gadberry. Furman then put together a 9-4 run to go ahead by four and force Samford to take a timeout. However, Furman continued to get the job done, going on an 8-3 run out of the break to win set three, 25-17.
The Paladins got on the board first on a Samford error but Stangohr responded with back-to-back kills and a block by Stangohr and Fountain put the Bulldogs up by two. Furman put together a 7-3 run to go ahead by two and force Samford to take a timeout. Samford rallied back out of the break to get within one on a 4-1 run and although Furman would go back ahead by as much as four, the Bulldogs would respond with some fire and get within one on a block by Neisler and Stangohr. However, Furman would go on to win the four and final set, 25-19.
