Oct. 5, 2011

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford Bulldogs (15-3, 2-2 SoCon) began their five-game homestand in convincing fashion, taking down Chattanooga (2-16, 0-4 SoCon) in three sets, their 11th sweep win of the season, second in conference play.

"Home court was good for us," said Head Coach Derek Schroeder. "We want our offense to feel like it has a flow to it and we've been struggling to find that for a couple weeks. By the end of set two, we had found that again and started to play good volleyball.

"We hit well as a team and Elizabeth Neisler and Katie Murphy hit good percentages as well."

The front-line trio of Neisler, Murphy and Lauren Hutchinson all had double-digit kills, with Neisler leading the team with 12. As the No. 2 player in the nation in hitting percentage, Hutchinson hit an impressive .692 clip with Murphy not far behind at .667. Casey Garvey set the pace for the offense, accounting for all 42 of the team's assists. Alexis Bauer led the defense with 17 digs, while Chelsi Carter followed close behind with 14 digs and was perfect on 24 serve receptions.

Samford began to pull away in the first set at the five-point mark, going on a 6-2 run to force an early Chattanooga timeout. The Lady Mocs took another after Samford built an 18-11 lead, followed by three points in a row by the Bulldogs. Up 20-12, Samford would not allow Chattanooga to hold any sustained possession, eventually winning the set 25-15.

The Lady Mocs built an early 3-0 lead in the second game, but Samford bounced back quickly, tying the game at 5-5 thanks to an unassisted kill by Murphy. Murphy's next kill put the Bulldogs up 9-6, forcing yet another Chattanooga timeout. The teams traded points back and forth throughout the middle of the set, with Samford holding a five-point lead, up 19-14, at the next timeout. Alicia Roth came out of the timeout with a service ace off her jump serve, followed by a Chattanooga attack error on the next serve. The Lady Mocs only scored one point after the final timeout of the set, and Samford earned a comfortable 25-15 win.

The Bulldogs took advantage of five Chattanooga errors in set three to build the early 9-6 win, with Neisler, Hutchinson and Murphy all contributing to an offense that was well in rhythm. The Bulldogs then went on a 9-4 run, including a four-serve rally by Garvey closed out with back-to-back kills by Michaela Reesor to force the final Chattanooga timeout of the match. The teams traded points the remainder of the set, but the early gap proved large enough to allow the Bulldogs to take the 25-16 win and seal the 3-0 sweep.

Next, Samford faces off against UNC Greensboro (10-10, 2-2 SoCon) on Friday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. in the Pete Hanna Center.