Sept. 4, 2009
Box Score
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ---- The Samford University volleyball team fell in its first match of the Belmont Tournament this afternoon to Central Arkansas. The Sugar Bears swept the Bulldogs in three straight matches, handing Samford its first loss of the season. Samford falls to 3-1 while the Sugar Bears improve to 2-2.
"Elizabeth Neisler played well for us today and that shows as she was one of our offensive leaders," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "In game one, we did not execute on any of the areas in our scouting report game plan. UCA maintained good pressure on us and we did not respond well. This was a tough learning match for a young team."
Samford played two close sets with Central Arkansas before eventually losing the match. The Bulldogs took the Sugar Bears to extra points in the first set, but Central Arkansas came up with two big service aces at the end of the set to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The Bulldogs played catch up in the second set, trailing the Sugar Bears the whole time. Despite Samford's efforts to tie the score a few times, Central Arkansas still managed to get the 25-22 win in set two.
Samford seemed to come alive in the third set, taking an early two-point lead, but Central Arkansas would not give up and the Sugar Bear offense was too much to contain. The final score of set three was 25-16.
Freshman Elizabeth Neisler was Samford's leader in hitting with a .308 average and a team-high three block assists. She also added six kills, seven and a half points and one ace. Rachel Gadberry also tallied six kills while grabbing two block assists, an ace and eight points. Sheriden Stangohr notched a team-high nine kills on 17 attempts. She also led the team in points with nine while grabbing two block assists.
Allie Bettinger had four kills and two block assists for six points while adding one ace and one dig. Hillary Fountain led the Bulldogs in assists, dishing out 13 while tallying three kills, three digs and two block assists. Casey Garvey grabbed nine of Samford 24 assists and four digs, while Sarah Gardner had six digs, one assist and one ace. Shelby Brandon had two kills and one block assists while Katie Luckman had one kill, one assist and seven digs. Alexis Bauer led the Bulldogs in digs with nine while grabbing three kills and one ace. Alicia Roth added two digs.
The Sugar Bears were led by Chloe Smith who tallied 11 kills and 15.5 points while also grabbing one assist, three aces, three block assists and eight digs. Cristin Curl led UCA in digs with 10 while Robyn Smith dished out 27 assists.
The Bulldogs will continue tournament tomorrow afternoon with a 12:30 p.m. meeting with former Ohio Valley Conference foe Southeast Missouri. They will then wrap up play in the Belmont Tournament as they meet up with Belmont at 6 p.m.
Follow the action via live stats on www.belmontbruins.com. A full recap and results will be available on www.samfordsports.com upon the complete of the day's play.
Central Arkansas 3, Samford 0
Central Arkansas handed Samford its first point of the match with an attack error to start out the first set. UCA's Chloe Smith then came back with a kill to get the Sugar Bears on the board. A 9-5 run by UCA gave the Sugar Bears a five point advantage and force Samford to use its first time out. The Bulldogs then grabbed three consecutive points out of the bear on a service error by UCA and kills by Gadberry and Bettinger. The Bulldogs had cut the lead to two.
Eventually, due to a service error by UCA's Robyn Smith and with a kill by Fountain, Samford got within one. Although Central Arkansas would score two more points, Samford soon tied the score with the help of kills by Bauer and Neisler and an ace by Gadberry.
With the score tied, Central Arkansas called a timeout. It would be a back-and-forth game from that point, with the Bulldogs taking a two-point lead before the Sugar Bears would reclaim the lead and go up by two. The score was time three more times before UCA's Chloe Smith served up back-to-back aces to win, 27-25.
Central Arkansas took a quick four-point lead in set two before the Bulldogs caught up and tied the score at 10 on kills by Fountain and Stangohr, an ace by Gadberry and blocks by all three as well as Neisler, Bettinger, and Brandon. The comeback was short-lived, however, as Central Arkansas quickly pushed the lead back out to four. Samford climbed back within two, but the Sugar Bears would eventually take set two, 25-22.
Samford grabbed the first lead of the third set early on a kill by Neisler and a block by Neisler and Stangohr to take a two-point lead. However, Central Arkansas would eventually tie the score at eight and would dominate the second half of the set, leading by as much as eight. The Sugar Bears took the final set, 25-16.
