Oct. 8, 2010
Box Score
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford volleyball team roared to its second Southern Conference win Friday night in a dominating 3-0 sweep of Western Carolina at the Pete Hanna Center. The Catamounts only scored a collective 41 points as Samford won in straight sets of 25-13, 25-11 and 25-17.
The win was Samford's eighth straight win over the Catamounts and the Bulldogs now lead the series, 8-4. Samford has won 18 of the 20 sets played in the series between the two teams.
Samford (8-11, 2-3 SoCon) never averaged below .200 as a team in Friday night's match, hitting a match-high of .462 in the second set. The Bulldogs also held Western Carolina (6-14, 1-4 SoCon) to a negative hitting percentage in each set and out-blocked the Catamounts, 6-2.
"I am very happy with the focused effort we gave tonight," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "That was a solid team effort in our SoCon home opener. And even with Fall Break this weekend, we had a great crowd who got behind our team and added to the atmosphere."
The Bulldogs were led once again by Elizabeth Neisler and Katie Murphy. Neisler posted a team-high 16 kills and hit .379 while also grabbing a solo block. Murphy followed with nine kills and a team-high .571 hitting percentage while also tallying two solo blocks and two block assists. Hillary Fountain dished out 40 assists and nine digs and also added two kills, two aces and two block assists. Alexis Bauer led the back row with 13 digs.
Lauren Hutchinson tallied six kills, one ace and hit .250 while Samantha Bland posted five kills, eight digs, one assist and hit .308. Allie Bettinger and Shelby Brandon each posted three kills. Bettinger also had a solo block and a dig while Brandon tallied two digs. Alicia Roth had four digs, two aces and an assist while Casey Garvey added seven digs, an ace and an assist.
Western Carolina was led by Carrie Minogue and Rebecca Stoltz who each posted four digs. Kelci Randazzo tallied 13 assists while Morgan Cochran dished out a team high nine digs.
Samford will close out the weekend Saturday night when it hosts Appalachian State. Match play is set to begin at 7 p.m. in the Pete Hanna Center.
Samford 3, Western Carolina 0
Fountain came out of the gate in the first set with a kill to get Samford on the board right away. Western Carolina answered back and after six ties in the score, the Bulldogs finally took a four-point lead on a block by Fountain, a kill by Murphy and two Catamount errors. With Samford leading 12-8, WCU called a timeout. However, Samford roared back with five straight points, including two blocks by Murphy, to go ahead by nine and force WCU to call another timeout. Bland knocked down a kill out of the break to extend the Samford lead to 10 and the Bulldogs would go on a 7-5 run to win set one, 25-13.
Back-to-back kills by Neisler and a kill by Fountain gave Samford a quick 3-0 lead in set two. Although the Catamounts answered back with a kill of their own, Samford continued to press and soon had a 10-4 lead with the help of several kills by Neisler and Brandon and an ace from Hutchinson. After a Catamount timeout, WCU fought to get within five points but Samford refused to let them get any closer and extended the lead to 10, forcing three straight Catamount errors. With Samford leading 20-10, WCU took another timeout but the Catamounts would only score one more point as Samford went on to win set two, 25-11, on a 6-1 run.
The beginning of the third set was the closest play of the match. Samford earned the first point of the set on a Catamount error but WCU evened the score with a kill. Samford then moved ahead by two with kills by Neisler and Hutchinson but WCU came back to tie the score again. The Bulldogs scored four straight on kills by Neisler, Hutchinson and Bettinger and a Catamount error but WCU fought back to get within one.
Samford finally took control of the set and pushed its lead out to five points on three straight kills by Neisler followed by a kill by Hutchinson. WCU called a timeout and came back to get within one point again, but Samford pulled back ahead by six before the Catamounts called their final timeout of the match. A Samford error out of the break cut the lead to five but Samford would go on to win the final set, 25-17, after four straight WCU errors.
