Nov. 12, 2010
Box Score
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University volleyball team dropped its final match of the season to Georgia Southern Friday night as it also honored its three seniors - Samantha Bland, Hillary Fountain and Rachel Gadberry. The Bulldogs fall to 14-16 on the year and 8-8 in Southern Conference play while Georgia Southern improves to 24-8 overall and 14-2 in league play.
The Eagles led the entire first set but only by as much as five points as they went on to win the set, 25-20. However, Samford came back and dominated the second set, hitting .348 as a team, and winning 25-15. The third and fourth sets were close fights but Georgia Southern captured the match win with a 25-21 win in set three and a 25-20 win in set four.
"Georgia Southern is a great team," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "There were about eight balls that we could've executed but we didn't and if we had four of those then we beat them. That's just what a young team has to realize is that playoff volleyball is about who executes at the highest percentage is going to have chances to win. One ball here and one ball there, then it's a total different match."
Samford out-blocked Georgia Southern, 13-6, but only hit above .200 in set two. The Bulldogs held GSU to a .000 team attack percentage in set two while the Eagles never hit below .200 in the other three sets, but also never hit above .250. The Bulldogs matched the Eagles on back row defense, with each team posting 54 digs.
With 18 digs on the night, Alexis Bauer moves into second place on the single-season digs record list with 417 on the year. She surpassed Courtney Gay (2008) and Brook Skinner (1994), who were formerly in second place, by one dig. Bauer also added two assists and an ace on the night.
Allie Bettinger led the Bulldogs in hitting with 13 kills and a .375 attack percentage. She also posted four digs and a solo block. Lauren Hutchinson followed with 12 kills and a .214 attack percentage while also posting two solo blocks and four block assists. Elizabeth Neisler added six kills, two digs and a block assist while Katie Murphy ended the night with four kills, two digs, three solo blocks and two block assists.
Casey Garvey led the offense with 29 assists while also adding 11 digs for her fifth double-double of the season and her third in a row. She also had a kill. Fountain added eight assists and three kills along with an ace, 13 digs and five block assists. Taylor Palmer had two kills while also posting the first solo block of her career. Bland had three digs while Alicia Roth had one dig.
Bethany Sanford and Hannah Nelson led the Eagles with 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Nelson posted a team-high .290 attack percentage followed by Sanford with a .273 percentage and Kate Van Dyke with .231. Sanford added five digs, a solo block and two block assists while Van Dyke posted a double-double with 39 assists and 11 digs. She also added two block assists.
Next up for Samford is the Southern Conference Tournament in Boone, N.C. The Bulldogs will find out Sunday who they will play. The tournament starts Friday Nov. 19. Samford is currently in position for a No. 3 seed in the North Division.
Georgia Southern 3, Samford 1
Samford opened up the match with an error to give Georgia Southern the first point of set one, but Bettinger came back with a kill to get Samford on the board as well. GSU then took a three-point lead after a kill and two Samford errors but the Bulldogs roared back to tie the score at four with kills by Fountain and Murphy and an Eagle error. The Eagles moved ahead by five but Samford came back to tie the score at 11 on kills by Neisler and Hutchinson. The score was tied twice more, but GSU capitalized on two Bulldog errors and knocked down a block and kill to take a 16-13 lead.
Samford called a timeout and came back to tie the score again but GSU pulled ahead again on kills by Parker Small and Sanford. The Bulldogs called another timeout, but the Eagles went on a 4-2 run to win set one, 25-20.
The Bulldogs came out in set two and took a quick 3-0 lead on back-to-back aces by Garvey and a block by Fountain and Hutchinson. GSU finally got on the board with a kill from Sarah Gildersleeve, but Fountain and Hutchinson roared back with another block followed by a kill by Bettinger and a GSU error to take a 6-1 lead and force the Eagles to call their first timeout of the match.
GSU came back with a kill but Samford tacked on five straight points with the help of back-to-back GSU errors and three straight blocks by Murphy. Samford then went on an 8-7 run to maintain the lead and force an Eagle timeout with a 19-9 lead. However, GSU would only score five more points as Samford went on to win set two, 25-15.
Samford and GSU traded kills to start the third set but Samford then forged ahead and took a 13-9 lead on two kills and a block by Hutchinson and Fountain. The Eagles called a timeout and Samford came back and extended its lead to seven on a kill by Fountain and three GSU errors. However, the Eagles cut the lead to four again and Samford called a timeout. GSU then piled on the pressure and went on a 7-3 run to tie the score at 20. Samford called its final timeout but could only score one more point in the set, and GSU went on to take the match lead with a 25-21 win in set three.
GSU took a quick 2-0 lead in the fourth set but Samford quickly evened the score on a block by Hutchinson and a bad set by Van Dyke. The score was tied twice before Samford took a two-point lead on a block by Fountain and Murphy and an ace by Fountain. GSU tied the score at six but Samford moved ahead again by two. However, the Eagles tied the score again at eight and took a three-point lead on a block by Van Dyke and Small.
Samford called a timeout but came back with an error to put GSU up by four. An ace by Moriah Bellissimo gave the Eagles a five-point lead and Samford burned its final timeout. Samford tried to catch up and cut the lead but GSU moved ahead by seven on two aces and a block. Samford cut the lead to four on a GSU service error, an ace by Bauer and a block by Palmer, and the Eagles called a timeout. However, Samford would only score twice more as the Eagles went on to win the final set, 25-20.
