Box Score CHARLESTON, S.C. ---- Samford volleyball suffered its first conference loss of the season Friday night in a rematch of last year's conference championship as the College of Charleston swept the Bulldogs at TD Arena.  The loss snaps a nine-match winning streak for Samford and is their first conference road loss since Oct. 1 of last season.
 
“This kind of result has been coming,” said Head Coach Derek Schroeder.  “There has been some complacency that we have been trying to practice against.  Hopefully we can learn a lesson or two from this one moving forward.”
 
Samford (14-7, 6-1 SoCon) was limited to a season-low .046 hitting percentage, committing 22 errors along with 27 kills on 109 swings.  Michaela Reesor led the offense with nine kills while Alexis Bauer led the defense with 11 digs, putting her within 29 digs of cracking the single-season top ten for the fourth time in her Samford career.
 
The College of Charleston (14-6, 6-1 SoCon) hit .309 with 41 kills, led by senior transfer Darcy Dorton with 12 kills as well as 13 digs for a double-double.
 
The two teams were neck-and-neck early with the home team holding a slight edge until Samford took its first lead off a kill by Lauren Hutchinson to move ahead, 8-7.  The Cougars quickly regained the lead however, knocking in five in a row to go up 12-8, forcing the Bulldogs to regroup with a timeout.  Later, down 16-12, a solo block and a kill by Katie Murphy narrowed the deficit to two points as the College of Charleston took a timeout.  The Cougars came out of the break firing, as a 4-1 run gave them a five-point lead at the 20-point mark, up 20-15.  Samford would only score three more points for the rest of the set, as the home team charged forward for a 25-18 win to open the match.
 
The teams traded the lead back-and-forth to begin set two, with the host team starting to pull away with a three-point run to move up 12-8.  The College of Charleston moved up by six, 16-10, but Samford answered with a three-point rally to draw within three, down 16-13.  The Cougars took back the momentum, pulling ahead 19-14 as Samford took a timeout.  The College of Charleston reached set point, up 24-17, and Samford briefly staved off the attack scoring one point but the Cougars ultimately pulled out the win, 25-18, to move ahead 2-0 in the match.
 
The home team started set three off with four unanswered points, but Samford quickly came back to tie it and the lead was again traded back-and-forth for the early portion of the frame.  Tied at 9-9, the Cougars scored four unanswered to move up 13-9 and stretched it further to 16-10 as Samford took a timeout.  The home team took control from then on, eventually winning the set 25-16 to complete the sweep.
 
Tomorrow night, Samford squares off at The Citadel (4-18, 0-6 SoCon) at 7 p.m. ET.