Friday, Sept. 15  |  4 p.m. (CT)  |  Samford vs. FGCU  |  Live Stats
Saturday, Sept. 16  |  11 a.m. (CT)  |  Samford at Indiana  |  Video  |  Live Stats  |  Audio  |  Tickets
Saturday, Sept. 16  |  4 p.m. (CT)  |  Samford vs. UNLV  |  Live Stats

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Samford University volleyball team is set to compete in its third highly-competitive road tournament in as many weeks Friday as the Bulldogs begin play in the 2017 Hoosier Classic against the FGCU Eagles at 4 p.m. (CT) in Indiana's University Gym.
 
Samford (3-8) will face FGCU (5-4) in its lone match of the day Friday before squaring off against both Indiana (9-0) and UNLV (4-6) on Saturday. The Bulldogs are slated to play the Hoosiers at 11 a.m., and the Rebels at 4 p.m., on the final day of the four-team weekend competition.
 
On Tuesday, in front of a season-high 919 fans, Samford earned a thrilling 25-23 victory in the opening set of its non-conference matchup against the Alabama Crimson Tide, but then the Bulldogs dropped a close 26-24 decision in the second stanza and couldn't recover in a 3-1 loss held at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
Samford came out blazing in the opening set. The Bulldogs came back from an early deficit and rallied for the key 25-23 win in the frame. Junior outside hitter, Krista Boesing, paced all competitors with 18 kills and finished with a team-best .204 hitting percentage.
 
Grace Tiesman posted 18 digs in Tuesday's contest, while Boesing and Kelsi Hobbs notched 11 apiece. Boesing's double-double proved to be her fourth of the 2017 campaign.
 
Junior Taylor Anderton, Samford's talented setter from Collierville, Tennessee, closed out the match with a game-high 42 assists.
 
The Bulldogs have already faced an extremely tough schedule this season. Samford is in the midst of a four-match losing streak, but has played contests against Ohio, Murray State, Milwaukee, UTEP, New Mexico State and Alabama in 2017. The Bulldogs are 1-6 when playing away from home this season.
 
FGCU owns a 5-4 record this year and enters this weekend's tournament with a bit of momentum after going 2-1 at the Davidson Wildcat Classic last week. The Eagles earned victories against Wofford, 3-0, and Davidson, 3-2, but came up short against Georgia in the finale, 3-0.
 
Indiana boasts a perfect 9-0 record this season and has outscored its opponents by an impressive tally of 27-4 this year. The only teams to take a single set from the Hoosiers in 2017 have been DePaul, Hofstra, LIU-Brooklyn and UAB.
 
Samford's final opponent of this weekend's tournament, UNLV, has aspirations of snapping a brief two-match losing streak. After earning a 3-2 home triumph against Weber State on Friday, the Rebels were defeated by both UC Irvine, 3-2, and Louisville, 3-0, at home in the UNLV Challenge.
 
Following this weekend's 2017 Hoosier Classic, the Samford University volleyball team will next be in action Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. (CT) as the Bulldogs begin Southern Conference play at home against The Citadel Bulldog in a highly-anticipated matchup to be held at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
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Friday, Sept. 15  |  4 p.m. (CT)  |  Samford vs. FGCU  |  Live Stats
Saturday, Sept. 16  |  11 a.m. (CT)  |  Samford at Indiana  |  Video  |  Live Stats  |  Audio  |  Tickets
Saturday, Sept. 16  |  4 p.m. (CT)  |  Samford vs. UNLV  |  Live Stats