ARLINGTON, Texas – The Samford University volleyball team concluded the first day of action at the UT Arlington Invitational with a 3-1 (25-18, 25-17, 20-25, 25-22) win over UTEP on Friday, Sept. 16, inside the College Park Center.

"We're a work in progress still and you can see that we are learning how to play on the road." Head Coach Keylor Chan said. "For the most part you know, we are on this journey of learning how to really grind and that it can be really tough. A split today is ok but we really need to buckle down moving forward."

Senior Erin Bognar picked up her fifth overall double-double, second straight, while Krista Boesing picked up her second double-double in as many matches. Bognar finished the match with 19 kills and 10 digs while Boesing contributed 14 kills and 11 digs.

Greenwald rounded out the double-digit scoring effort with 11 kills while Kiahna Wicks was the most efficient attacker as she notched eight kills on 13 attacks for a .615 attack percentage.
 
Set 1 | W, Samford 25-18
The afternoon match started out with seven ties and only a pair of lead changes between the Bulldogs and the Miners.

Samford scored the first point of the match off of a Gabbi Greenwald kill but had to work to regain the lead after the team fell behind 11-9. A kill by middle blocker T.J. Russell sparked a 5-0 run that gave the Bulldogs back the lead and forced a UTEP timeout.

From there the lead only grew for the Bulldogs, the team rolled their way to a 25-18 victory on a hitting percentage of .341 with 17 kills and only a trio of errors.

Sophomore Krista Boesing led all attackers in the set with six kills on 13 attempts with only one error while senior setter Erika Pifer notched 13 assists.
 
Set 2 | W, Samford 25-17
The Samford offense started out on fire in the following set as the team took an early 10-4 lead thanks to a pair of aces, one each by Mattie Newson and Alana Schouten, and six kills on a .667 hitting percentage.

UTEP pressed Samford midway through the set and cut into the Bulldogs lead after the Miners strung together a 7-1 run to close down the lead to 17-12 and force a Samford timeout.

The Bulldogs responded out of the timeout and rallied to close out the set 15-17. Pifer distributed 14 assists in the set while senior outside hitter Erin Bognar brought her kill total to 12 total (.400) two sets into the match.
 
Set 3 | W, UTEP 25-20
The Samford offense stalled early in the third set which allowed UTEP to gain momentum in the match. Much like the initial set there were seven ties and three lead changes early on and the Bulldogs found themselves down 10-8.

After the team had very efficient outings in the first two sets, the Bulldogs managed to hit just .097 going into the later stages of the set down 17-13. With only five errors through the first two sets Samford nearly doubled that total with four before a timeout called by Head Coach Keylor Chan.

The Bulldogs fended off a pair of set points late in the match but the Miners capped off the effort with a 25-20 decision. UTEP hit .270 in the set while Samford hit just .143.

Set 4 | W, Samford 25-21
After a sluggish third set, Samford returned to form and jumped out early to a 4-0 lead over UTEP.

The Miners would only get as close as three points to where they could tie it for a majority of the set but rallied in the later stages to go on a 9-3 run and eventually forced the first tie at 19-19 and then again at 20-20.

Samford pushed back to close out the set and the match on a 5-1 run.

Next Up
The Bulldogs return to action tomorrow at 10 a.m. versus New Mexico then again at 4:30 p.m. against Houston Baptist.