Nov. 19, 2010
Box Score
BOONE, N.C. ---- The Samford volleyball team dropped its fourth straight match in the series with the College of Charleston in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament Friday afternoon. The loss is the first for the Bulldogs in the first round of the tournament. Samford ends the 2010 campaign with a 14-17 overall record.
Elizabeth Neisler and Katie Murphy were recognized before the match for their All-SoCon awards. Neisler received her award for second team All-SoCon while Murphy received hers for Freshman of the Year and All-Freshman team.
The Bulldogs fell in the first set, 25-22, and in the second set, 25-19, but made an incredible comeback in set three to push the set to extra play. The Bulldogs won set three, 32-30, but eventually fell in set four, 25-18. The Bulldogs hit .352 as a team in set three but the Cougars held Samford under .170 in the other three sets.
"We played very well," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said, "but we didn't play well enough to win against a team as good as Charleston. I feel we played our best match of the year. Our middles and Neisler played very well but we just couldn't make enough plays to pull out the win."
Elizabeth Neisler tallied 20 k ills and hit .304 to lead the Bulldogs against the Cougars while also posting a block assist. Katie Murphy and Lauren Hutchinson posted 14 kills each while Hutchinson led the team in hitting with a .312 percentage. Murphy also led the team in blocks with five block assists and posted a .243 hitting percentage while Hutchinson grabbed four digs.
Casey Garvey dished out 52 assists while also posting six digs, three kills, three block assists and a solo block. Alexis Bauer tied a career high with 25 digs while also adding an assist and an ace. Samantha Bland followed with 14 digs and an ace while Bettinger tallied eight kills and 10 digs while also grabbing a block assist and two assists. Hillary Fountain had nine digs while also grabbing two kills, two assists and an ace. Taylor Palmer had three kills and Lyndsey Holt added a dig.
Elyse Chubb and Ginny Phillips led the Cougars with 14 kills each. Chubb hit .300 and grabbed three solo blocks and a block assist while Phillips hit .423 and grabbed seven digs, three assists, an ace and a block assist. Cole Dawley led the team in hitting with eight kills on 14 swings with no errors for a .571 average. She also led the team in assists with 51 while grabbing six digs, three block assists, a solo block and an ace.
Madelyn McGinnis posted 11 kills, four digs and a block assist while Paige Johnson tallied 27 digs. Emily Shelton followed with 12 kills while Kallie McKown had ten.
College of Charleston (28-5) will move on to the semifinal round to meet UNC Greensboro who defeated Furman in five sets in the first match of the day.
College of Charleston 3, Samford 1
Neisler opened the first set with a kill but the Cougars answered back. The teams traded kills again but a blocking error by Charleston gave Samford a 3-2 lead. A kill and a Samford error handed the lead back to Charleston but with a kill by Murphy and a solo block by Garvey, the Bulldogs moved ahead again by one. The Cougars tied the score and took the lead again but a kill by Murphy and two blocks by Murphy, Garvey and Neisler followed by a kill by Neisler gave Samford a 9-6 lead.
Charleston cut the lead to two but Samford answered back and took a 12-8 lead to force the Cougars to burn their first timeout. Charleston came back with a kill out of the break but the Bulldogs maintained a three-point lead with a kill from Neisler and a couple of Cougar errors. However, Charleston went on a 5-1 run to take a 16-15 lead and force Samford to call a timeout. Bettinger came out of the break with a kill to even the score but another 4-2 run by the Cougars put Charleston up by two and had Samford wanting another timeout. Charleston extended its lead out of the break to three and would go on to win the first set, 25-22.
Samford and Charleston traded errors to start the second set. It was a back-and-forth affair after that, with Samford taking the lead and Charleston tying the score. The Bulldogs finally took a three-point lead on kills by Hutchinson and an ace by Bland. However, Charleston went on a 4-0 run to take a 14-13 lead and Samford called a timeout. Charleston extended the lead to four, but after Samford called another timeout, the Cougars would go on to win set two, 25-19.
After a long volley to start the third set, Charleston finally got a kill and the first lead of the set. A bad set by the Cougars gets Samford got on the board and a kill by each team tied the score at two. Charleston then downed three straight kills and an ace to take a 6-2 lead and force Samford to call a timeout. The Cougars extended their lead to five out of the break but Samford began to chip away at the lead, eventually tying the score at 13 on a kill by Hutchinson and a block by Murphy and Bettinger.
Charleston came back with a kill out of the break but Samford forged ahead and took a 16-15 lead on kills by Murphy and Garvey, and the Cougars called a timeout. It was a back-and-forth game again after the timeout as the teams traded the lead. Charleston took a 23-22 lead and Samford called a timeout. The Bulldogs came back with two kills by Neisler and a kill by Bettinger to hold the Cougars at match point and take a 25-24 lead. Charleston called another timeout and the battle continued. Samford, however, roared back and took the set win, 32-30 on kills by Murphy and Neisler and a block by Garvey and Murphy.
The Bulldogs and Cougars traded kills to start the fourth set and it was a close game until Charleston put together a 3-0 run to move ahead, 9-6. The score was tied five times before Charleston knocked down three straight blocks to take a 17-14 lead. Samford called the first timeout of the match but the Bulldogs put together a 4-2 run with kills by Neisler and Bettinger and a block by Garvey and Murphy to get within one point. Leading 19-18, the Cougars called a timeout and came back to move ahead by three. Samford called its final timeout but Charleston would go on to win set four, 25-18.
