Oct. 27, 2010
Box Score
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford volleyball team dropped its first match to Chattanooga since 1999 in a four-set battle at the Pete Hanna Center Wednesday night. The loss evened the score in the Southern Rail Rivalry, but a soccer win at Chattanooga at the same time retained the rivalry lead for Samford.
The Bulldogs (11-14, 5-6 SoCon) won the first set, 25-18, but Chattanooga (10-17, 5-6 SoCon) won the next three (26-24, 25-22, 25-21) to take the match win. The second set win for the Lady Mocs broke an 18-set win streak in the series for the Bulldogs that stretched back to 2007.
Lauren Hutchinson led the Bulldogs with a career-high 18 kills while also hitting .394 and posting three block assists, a solo block, a dig and an assist. Katie Murphy tallied 13 kills and a team-high .429 hitting percentage while also knocking down three block assists and two solo blocks. Elizabeth Neisler posted 15 kills, two block assists and a dig while also hitting .209 on the night.
Casey Garvey dished out 49 assists and just missed a double-double with nine digs. She also posted two block assists, a kill and an assist. Alexis Bauer led the back row with 21 digs while also grabbing an assist and serving up an ace. Samantha Bland followed with a season-high 16 digs.
Allie Bettinger had 12 digs and six kills while Hillary Fountain added 10 digs, three assists and an ace. Lyndsey Holt posted three kills, five digs and a block assist while Taylor Palmer added two kills, two digs and a block assist.
Heather Parman and Meagan Ernd led Chattanooga with 16 and 13 kills, respectively. Parman added 11 digs for a double-double while also posting a block assist and an ace. Ernd had three digs and two block assists.
Courtney Barnes led the Lady Mocs in blocks with seven block assists and a solo block. She also added four kills, four digs and an assist. Bailee Chastain led the offense with 35 assists and also posted 11 digs and five block assists while Paula Passmore led the back row with 16 digs.
The Bulldogs will round out their five-match homestand this weekend when they play host to UNC Greensboro Saturday and Elon Sunday. Both matches start at 2 p.m. in the Pete Hanna Center.
Chattanooga 3, Samford 1
Each team traded errors to start the first set but Samford eventually gained the lead after fighting through several tied scores. With the score tied at eight, the Bulldogs took a definitive lead on a kill by Hutchinson. Two Lady Moc errors followed and Chattanooga wanted a timeout. Samford piled on the pressure after the break and went on a 7-1 run to take a nine-point lead, capped off by two kills by Hutchinson and an ace by Bland.
Chattanooga called another timeout and put together their own 6-2 run to cut the lead to five. Samford called a timeout and the Lady Mocs came back with a kill by Ernd to get within four. However, Samford scored four straight to reach set point on a kill by Murphy, a block by Murphy and Palmer and a Chattanooga error. The Lady Mocs held the Bulldogs at set point twice but Samford won the set, 25-18, on a Lady Moc error.
Samford scored the first two points of the second set on Chattanooga errors and then went on a 6-3 run to take an 8-5 lead. Chattanooga called a timeout and came back to cut the lead to three before Samford called its own timeout. With the Bulldogs leading 12-9, Samford came out of the break with a kill by Hutchinson. However, the Lady Mocs fired back and tied the score at 15, causing Samford to call its second timeout.
Chattanooga took over the lead, even leading by as much as four points but Samford fought back and went on a 4-0 run with the help of two UTC errors, a kill by Murphy and a block by Neisler and Murphy to tie the score at 21. Chattanooga called a timeout and both teams fought through two tied scores. Chattanooga reached match point on an error by Neisler but Palmer answered back with a kill to hold them off. However, with a kill and an ace, Chattanooga won the second set, 26-24.
The Lady Mocs took a quick 2-0 lead again in the third set but Samford fought back and finally took a two-point lead on three straight kills by Hutchinson, Bettinger and Holt. The teams fought through nine ties while the lead changed back-and-forth from three points for Chattanooga to two points for Samford. However, Chattanooga eventually took the lead back on back-to-back errors by the Bulldogs. Samford called the first timeout of the set, but UTC came right back with a 3-1 run to reach match point at 24-21. Samford called another timeout and came back to hold the Lady Mocs off with a kill by Hutchinson, but UTC answered right back and won the third set, 25-22.
Chattanooga jumped out to a quick lead in the final set with the help of a 5-0 run. Samford called a timeout and answered back with its own 5-0 run to tie the score due to kills by Neisler and Hutchinson, an ace by Garvey and Lady Moc error. The score was tied five more times before Samford took a 14-11 lead on kills by Murphy and Hutchinson and several UTC errors. Chattanooga called a timeout and roared back to take the lead by one point. Samford then called a timeout and tried to fight back, but Chattanooga forged ahead and took a five-point lead. The Lady Mocs had match point at 24-19, but Samford held them off twice with a kill by Neisler and an error by Parman. However, Chattanooga called a timeout and came right back to win the final set, 25-21.
