ARLINGTON, Texas – The Samford University volleyball team picked up a big win, 3-2 (25-21, 17-25, 22-25, 25-23, 17-15) over Mountain West conference member New Mexico at the UT Arlington Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 17, inside the College Park Center.

"It was a great win for us because they're (New Mexico) a great team." Head Coach Kelyor Chan said. "We finally engaged in what the process really is against a quality opponent and we saw the results of that this morning. We'll see if we can replicate that later this afternoon against Houston Baptist."

The Bulldogs (8-6) handed the Lobos (8-4) just their fourth loss on the season in the five set thriller. Both teams came into today's match with just four five-set matches played between the pair. Samford, 1-2 in five set matches evened that to 2-2 with the win and New Mexico dropped to 0-2.

A trio of Bulldogs picked up double-doubles in the match and were led by Erin Bognar's third-consecutive double-double of 25 kills and 13 digs. Krista Boesing (17 kills, 10 digs) posted her third-consecutive as well while setter Erika Pifer had a near career day with her 60 assists and 16 digs.
Freshman libero Grace Tiesman led all Bulldogs with 17 digs in the win.

Set 1 | W, Samford 25-21
The Bulldogs jumped out in front early on New Mexico after the team erased a 3-1 deficit to force five ties before it took an 8-7 lead.

From there Samford ripped off a 6-2 run to extend its lead. Senior outside hitter Erin Bognar was the fuel for the Samford offense as she posted six kills on just nine swings to help build the 17-11 lead over the Lobos.

The Bulldogs offense continued to pour it on in the set as the team finished with an attack percentage of .371 with 17 kills on 35 attempts with only four errors. The duo of Bognar (7) and sophomore Krista Boesing (6) combined for 13 of those kills.

Set 2 | W, New Mexico 25-17
The Samford offense came to a roaring halt to start the second set of the match. The squad fell behind early 11-7 to New Mexico after the team posted an attack rating of -.182 where there was only one kill on 11 attempts with a pair of errors.

New Mexico's offense didn't fare much better at the time as they hit just .077.

The Bulldogs closed down the Lobos lead to as little as a pair of points, 15-13, after an Alana Schouten service ace but New Mexico bounced back to extend the lead back out far enough to where Samford could not recover.

The Lobos finished the set to hit .269 after the slow start while the Bulldogs wrapped up the set with .094 average.

Set 3 | W, New Mexico 25-22
The Bulldogs bounced back in the third set to hit their highest percentage of the match to this point at .387 but it wasn't enough as the Lobos hit .314.

Samford fell behind by as many as nine points after an 8-1 run gave New Mexico an 18-9 lead.

Shayla Phillip helped spart the Samford rally late in the match but New Mexico was able to fend off the late surge and hold one for the set victory.

Phillip went 4-for-6 from with zero attack errors for a .667 attack percentage.
 
Set 4 | W, Samford 25-23
Both teams battled back-and-forth the entire set as there were xx ties and only xx lead changes.

Samford took an early 7-4 lead over New Mexico off of a kill from Bognar. The Bulldogs maintained the advantage until the Lobos briefly claimed it 8-7 on a kill from Devanne Sours.

The battle continued all the way to 18-18 until New Mexico gained a two point lead, 20-18, from a pair of Samford attack errors.

Tied 23-23, Bognar produced her 22^nd kill of the match to put Samford on top 24-23 with a set point opportunity.  She finished off the comeback with her second consecutive kill to force a fifth set in the match.

Set 5 |
The Lobos offense came out on fire in the final set of the match as the team posted six kills on 10 swings with no errors (.600). Samford kept the match close after being able to sideout three straight serves and took the lead 11-10 on a New Mexico attack error.

Samford took the advantage 16-15 on a kill from Greenwald. It was the Louisville, Kentucky native's 13^th kill of the match (.353).

Boesing put the match away going off the block from the left side for her 17^th kill of the match.
 
Next Up
Samford will wrap up the UT Invitational with a match later this afternoon against Houston Baptist at 4:30 p.m. (CDT).