Nov. 12, 2011
Box Score
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford volleyball team secured sole possession of first place in the SoCon North Division with a 3-1 win at home versus Western Carolina on Saturday. It is their third division title in the past four seasons and secures a No. 1 seed in next week's SoCon Tournament in Birmingham, Ala.
"We had great performances out of our defensive specialists today," said Head Coach Derek Schroeder. "Taylor Chao and Alicia Roth were big for us today, coming in and defending when we needed them. When we struggled attacking our defense and serving picked up the slack and helped us out."
Today's win is the Bulldogs' (26-3, 13-2 SoCon) 12th straight and pushes their undefeated home record to 11-0 this season. The Catamounts (12-19, 7-8 SoCon) split the match at 1-1, but ultimately fell short, hitting .178 (42/19/129) as a team. Samford hit .331 (67/16/154) with four in double-digit kills, led by Elizabeth Neisler with 18. Casey Garvey earned a career-best 58 assists as she moves into 10th all-time at Samford in single-season assists with 1,193 this season, passing Collen Donivan's 1999 total of 1,182.
Samford held the edge in digs, 61-56, led by Alexis Bauer with 19 and out-blocked the Catamounts 7-4. Western Carolina was led in kills by Caitlin Piechota with 15, hitting a .233 clip and adding 16 digs for the double-double.
Samford looked to make a statement right away, winning the first set 25-16. Up 6-5, Chelsi Carter knocked in a kill to pull up 7-5 and give the Bulldogs possession. Carter was at the service line and put up two successful serves in a row, setting up kills by Neisler and Katie Murphy to complete the 3-0 run to go up 9-5. Samford maintained the lead, going up by five thanks to a Murphy kill to force a Catamount timeout up 15-10. The Bulldogs came out of the timeout and quickly scored three in a row to force a frustration timeout by Western Carolina. Samford hit the 20-point mark, up 20-12, and outscored the Catamounts 5-4 to close out the 25-16 win.
Set two was the longest of the match, with the Catamounts earning the edge 29-27. Western Carolina took their first lead of the match on a Murphy attack error to up 7-6 early in set two. The middle portion of the set was tightly contested, with eight ties and three lead changes leading to a 20-20 tie. Tied at 22-22, a Western Carolina service error followed by an attack error gave the Bulldogs a shot at set point, up 24-22, but Western Carolina took a timeout to try and slow the momentum. A Samford service error and an attack error tied the match back up at 24-24 and neither team could capitalize on set point until, up 28-27, Western Carolina's Carrie Minogue knocked in the final kill to even the match up 1-1.
The Bulldogs came out of the ten-minute break determined to not fall behind, earning a 25-19 win in set three. The Catamounts held a slim edge in the early portion of the set, as Michaela Reesor earned a kill to draw within one, down 11-12, and give the Bulldogs possession. Chao served up three in a row, pulling ahead 14-12 and forcing a Western Carolina timeout. Chao served up two more out of the break to give the Bulldogs their largest lead of the set, up 16-12. The Catamounts threatened, drawing within one but an assisted block by Neisler and Lauren Hutchinson and a kill by Neisler put the Bulldogs up 20-17 to force a late Western Carolina timeout. Samford came out of the break with renewed energy, only allowing the Catamounts to score two in the remainder of the set, earning a solid 25-19 victory.
Samford didn't waste any time securing their division title, beating the Catamounts in set four 25-18 to secure the four-set victory. The set was tied at three different points early, but after going up 5-4 the Bulldogs would not give up the lead for the rest of the set. Up 5-4, Samford went on a 6-2 run to pull ahead 11-6 forcing yet another Western Carolina timeout. The momentum shifted multiple times during the set, as each team had multiple runs but the Bulldogs were able to maintain the lead, pulling up as much as seven, 21-14, at the final timeout of the match thanks to a 5-1 run with two kills each by Reesor and Murphy and a fifth by Neisler. The teams traded points evenly for the remainder of the set, with Garvey tipping over the final kill of the match to secure the seven-point win.
Samford closes out the regular season tomorrow at home with a 2 p.m. match against Appalachian State.
