Appalachian State 3, Chattanooga 0
Chattanooga, Tenn. ? The Lady Mocs fell to the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the team’s conference opener at home Wednesday night, 30-25, 30-27, 30-28.
Kari Wiedinger and Leslee Ball tallied 11 and 10 kills, respectively. But it wasn’t enough as the Mountaineers out-hit the Lady Mocs 56-39 and out-blocked the team 11-6.
In game one, Chattanooga tied the game 11 times, but wasn’t ever quite able to take the lead. ASU’s Charissa Clearman served four times to put the Mountaineers up 28-25 before Chrissy Finch closed out the game on an attack error by Ball.
Game two was even closer for the Lady Mocs. UTC took an early 4-0 lead, but behind the serving of Brittany Zahn, Appalachian State took over the lead at 9-7. Chattanooga took the lead one other time in the game at 24-23, but strong hitting allowed ASU to regain the lead and take the game.
Chattanooga had another chance in game three as it took another 4-0 lead and led throughout most of the game. After falling behind at match point, the Lady Mocs capitalized on three back-to-back errors by ASU, but weren’t able to push the game into overtime with the final point coming from a Dianna Thomas kill.
Junior setter Bethany Herndon added 33 assists to put her only 318 assists away from moving up to fourth all-time in career assists.
The volleyball team heads to Bloomington, Indiana this weekend to compete in the Indiana University Invitational. The first match is Friday against the host, Indiana at 7:00 p.m. The next home match will be against UNC-Greensboro on Sat., Sept. 23, at 2 p.m.
Gardner-Webb 3, Wofford 1
Sophomore Liz Sheets had 16 kills and a .467 hitting percentage, but it wasn’t enough for the Terriers to overcome Gardner-Webb at home Wednesday night as Wofford fell 3-1 (17-30, 21-30, 30-25, 30-16) to the Bulldogs.
Wofford lost the first two games, but came back with a .359 hitting percentage in the third to take the game 30-25. But the Bulldogs couldn’t be tamed and took the final game 30-16.
“We’ve been playing well in our last few matches and continued to do that tonight,” said head coach Corey Helle, who earned his 49th career win Tuesday night against Radford. “But (Gardner-Webb) is a good team and we were just a bit overmatched. We did have some great individual performances from Liz (Sheets) and Shana (Glenn).”
Sheets had her best performance of the season as she notched 16 kills on 30 of her attack attempts for a .467 hitting percentage ? all team highs. Sheets also added two digs and assisted on two blocks.
Glenn provided the defense for the Terriers with a team-high 16 digs. She leads the squad with 76 on the season.
“Our younger players are also stepping up and showing that they can play at this level,” Helle said. “Joanna Suddath is doing well as our setter and Courtney (Gregory) did a great job coming off the bench tonight.”
Gregory, a freshman, saw action in three of the four games, but still managed to tally nine kills on 22 attempts for a .273 hitting percentage.
Suddath had 38 assists which brings her season total to 173. She also had nine digs on the night.
Freshman Shanna Hughes, coming off a solid performance against Radford Tuesday night, also added seven kills.
“We’re a young team and it’ll take some time to get where we want to be, but everyone is making great progress,” Helle said. “Even though we lost, I’m pleased with everyone’s performance and attitude on the court. We have a great team and all it will take is game experience to make us better.”
Wofford will host the two-day Enterprise Rent-A-Car Volleyball Classic starting on Friday, Sept. 15. The Terriers will open the tournament with a match against Southern Conference foe Elon at 4 p.m. on Friday and will play again at 8 p.m. against UT-Martin.