Volleyball Falls in Five Sets at Furman

Saturday, September 30

Greenville, SC

3:00 PM

Samford University

6-10,1-3SoCon

Furman

12-3,3-1SoCon

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Samford	25	27	18	20	5	2
Furman	21	25	25	25	15	3

9.30.23 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Samford Volleyball team dropped a five-set thriller at Furman University on Saturday afternoon in Southern Conference play.

With the loss, the Bulldogs drop to 6-10 overall and 1-3 in SoCon play. It also snaps Samford's 13-match win streak over Furman, whose record now sits at 12-3 overall and 3-1 in league action.

Gracie Lynn Butler led the Bulldogs on offense, finishing the day just one kill shy of a career-high at 25 and adding nine digs. Kaleigh Meritt posted 14 kills and logged seven digs.

Lexi Thatcher recorded her fourth double-double of the season, compiling a career-high 55 assists and registering 10 digs. Kate Morgan led the Bulldog defense with a season-high 23 digs, while Annabelle Straty tallied 12 digs on the day.

Meritt put the Bulldogs up 8-6 in set one and they later created separation by going up 14-10. The Bulldogs took control of the set by rattling off a late 4-0 to take a 24-19 lead before eventually claiming it 25-21.

A Butler kill evened the score at nine in the second set, but Furman went on to take a 16-12 lead. The Paladins outscored Samford 7-4 from there to grab a 23-16 lead, but Samford used a pair of late 4-0 runs to tie the match at 24 and force extra points. With their backs against the wall and down 25-24, the Bulldogs scored three consecutive points to take the second set 27-25. Samford accounted for seven of the final eight points in the set.

The Paladins jumped out to an 11-6 lead in set three, but Samford eventually fought back to trim its deficit to 18-17 following a kill by Sophia Plasman. Furman took back momentum by scoring the next five points to go up 23-17 en route to winning the set, 25-18.

The two teams battled to a 12-12 score in set four, with the score reading 16-15 in favor of Furman following a kill by Golden. From there, the Paladins scored five of the next six points to take a 21-16 lead on their way to clinching the set 25-20.

The Paladins came out swinging in set five, scoring the first four points and eventually taking a 9-3 lead before clinching the match with a 15-5 victory.

"We demonstrated some resilience from our Wofford match to our Furman match," Head Coach Keylor Chan said. "We created some opportunities to push forward.
We ultimately fell short and will need to continue to improve daily if we want to reach our goals by seasons end."

The Bulldogs will return home for their next contest on Friday, Oct. 6 when they host Western Carolina at 7:00 p.m. from the Pete Hanna Center.

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