CULLOWHEE, N.C. – The Samford University volleyball team dropped its first Southern Conference road match of the season in a 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 25-14) affair against Western Carolina University on Saturday, Oct. 1, inside the Ramsey Center.

The Bulldogs (10-8, 1-2 SoCon) dropped their second-straight SoCon match of the season while the Catamounts bounced back to improve to 7-9 overall and 2-1 in SoCon play after the team suffered a 3-0 defeat at Furman the previous night.

Series Update

Today was the 25^th overall meeting between the two programs and despite the loss today Samford still holds an 18-7 record over Western Carolina. It was only the second loss succeeded to the Catamounts on the road which drops the record to 7-2. The two teams will square off again at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham on Friday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m.

By The Set

Set 1 | W, Western Carolina (25-21) Samford jumped out to an early 7-2 lead over Western Carolina to start the match which prompted the Catamounts to quickly call a timeout to rally the troops. The timeout turned out to be productive, Western Carolina eventually tied the set 12-12 on a kill from Aleah Keaton. The Bulldogs regained the lead and a small amount of separation, 17-14, thanks to kills from Erin Bognar and Erika Pifer. The Catamounts made their move late in the set when they ripped off a 9-2 run after being down 18-16.

Set 2 | W, Western Carolina (25-20) The following set turned out to be a back-and-forth battle between the two teams, with 10 ties and a total of five lead changes. Neither team found an offensive rhythm in the set as each hit below .100, Samford notched a .024 percentage while Western Carolina finished just ahead with a .097 mark. The key moment of the set was when it was tied 18-18 and the Catamounts mounted a 7-2 run that featured four Samford errors.

Set 3 | W, Samford (25-20) The Bulldogs found themselves in a hole early on after the intermission as the Catamounts opened up the set on a 7-1 run. Samford bounced back quickly to close down the Western Carolina lead to 11-10 thanks to a Kate Neisler kill. However, it wasn't until 20-19 when the Bulldogs picked up their first lead of the set thanks to an attack error by Alyssa Zupan. From there Samford seized the momentum to close out the set with a 5-1 run.

Set 4 | W, Western Carolina (25-14) The set was controlled from start to finish by Western Carolina as they jumped out to an early 5-0 lead from which Samford was unable to recover from. The Bulldogs came as close as 14-10 in the set but the Catamounts streaked away with the match via an 11-4 run.
 
Key Notes

- Senior Erin Bognar was set 47 times in the match, which is the second most attempts by her in a four-set match and the third most on the team this season.

- Western Carolina's Aleah Keaton posted the most kills (15) in a four-set match against Samford so far this season. She only recorded one attack error on the day and hit .609 for the match.

- Kate Neisler saw her first action since being sidelined with an injury on Sept. 10, against Cal State Northridge. Neisler finished with 10 kills and eight digs in the match with a service ace and a block.

- Freshman libero Grace Tiesman posted a career-high 27 digs in the match. It was her fourth 20-plus dig performance of the season and second overall in a four-set match.

- The team attack percentage of .087 is the third lowest attack percentage by the Bulldogs this season. Wyoming (.043) and Alabama (.050) are the only other matches were Samford hit below .100.

Next Up

The Bulldogs will return home to the Pete Hanna Center for a pair of Southern Conference matches on Friday, Oct. 7, and Saturday, Oct. 8. Samford will face Mercer at 7 p.m. first on Friday and then The Citadel on Saturday at 3 p.m.