Chattanooga 3, Wofford 2
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ? The Lady Mocs dominated the deciding game of a see-saw, five game match (30-22, 30-26, 26-30, 23-30, 15-6) to give coach Lisa Rhodes her 299th career win at Maclellan Gym Wednesday night.
Chattanooga won the first two games of the match before Wofford rallied to take two straight games and force a deciding fifth game. Senior Lindsay Galloway’s service ace gave the Lady Mocs a 3-1 lead in game five. A brief Wofford run tied the game at four. A Kari Wiedinger kill stopped the run and gave Chattanooga the lead for good. Bethany Herndon and Leslee Ball both added kills and then combined on a pair of blocks sandwiched between Wofford hitting errors. Wofford took a timeout to attempt to stop the Chattanooga surge, but the lead was now 11-5 and the Lady Mocs were on their way to another home conference victory. Chattanooga is now 14-13 overall and 9-6 in the Southern Conference. Wofford drops to 10-14 and 5-9 in the SoCon.
Sarah Bass led the Lady Mocs with 15 kills and hit .360 for the match. Galloway and Kelly Ramsay added 11 kills while both Leslee Ball and Kari Weidinger each had 10. It was the second time this season that the Lady Mocs had five hitters with 10 or more kills. Bethany Herndon had 34 set assists and Michaela Huff added 25. Galloway and Herndon each had three service aces.
Defensively Lara Newberry had 28 kills for Chattanooga. Michaela Huff and Amanda Durfee added 13 and 12 respectively. Lindsay Galloway had 14 digs to go with her 11 kills, to tally her 13th double-double of the season.
Wofford was led by Brittany Thompson’s 21 kills and 25 digs. Katie Sobczyk and Tory Macomson also added a double-doubles. Sobczyk had 16 kills and 15 digs, while Macomson tallied 15 kills and 13 digs. The Cougar offense was directed by setter Rhea DeJesus who had 54 set assists.
UTC will take to the road in search of Coach Rhodes 300th career win. The Lady Mocs will take on Georgia Southern Friday night in Statesboro. The Lady Mocs won the earlier meeting between the two clubs last month at Maclellan Gym. Game time is set for 7 p.m.