Wofford 3, The Citadel 1

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Reagan Styles breaks the all-time Wofford career dig mark with 20 digs in 3-1 (19-25, 25-12, 25-20, 25-18) Terrier win over The Citadel Friday night in the McAlister Fieldhouse in a Southern Conference match.

Styles entered the match with 1,436 career digs, 18 shy of the all-time mark of 1,454 held by Brittany Thompson from 2005-08.  Styles collected her record tying 18th dig of the match and record breaking 19th dig of the match with the Terriers leading 19-17 in the fourth set.  Wofford went on to win the point and take a 20-17 lead. Her 20th and final dig of the match with the Terriers up 20-17, and again Wofford won the point to take a 21-17 lead.

The Bulldogs took the an early 9-5 lead in the opening set, but the Terriers used a4-0 run to tied the set at nine.  The Citadel responded with a 7-3 run to pull out a 16-12 lead.  Wofford was able to cut the gap to three points throughout the set, but the Bulldogs took the set by six points, 25-19.

The second set was all Wofford as jumped out to a 13-3 lead en route to a 25-12 win.

With the score tied at six in the third set, Wofford mounted a 7-1 run to take a 13-7 lead.  The Bulldogs earned the next point to cut the set to five points, 13-8, but the Terriers never allowed the Bulldogs back into they took the set 25-20.

In the fourth set, The Terriers held an early 8-5 lead, and extended the lead out to six points, 13-7.  The Citadel answered with a 4-1 run to cut the deficit to three points, 14-11, and eventually tied the set at 17 as the run continued to 10-4.  Wofford responded with an 8-1 run as they closed out the set 25-18 to earn the match win.

After getting outhit in the opening set, .429-.222, Wofford held The Citadel to just .098 clip on the match, while the Terriers hit .248.  The Terriers recorded 32 more kills than The Bulldogs, 64-32.

Amanda Liguori led the Wofford offense with 13 kills, while Arden Anderson followed with 15 kills and .560 hitting percentage.  Rachel Woodlee followed with 12 kills, six in the fourth set, while Taylor Baird and Wendy Burnett added nine kills apiece.  Bekah Dorsey tied a career-high with 48 assists giving her 2,034 career digs.  She becomes only the fifth Terrier all-time with over 2,000 career digs.

Defensively Styles’ 20 digs was a match-high, and Kelsey Bagwell followed with 11 digs.  Anderson and Baird had four block assists to lead the Terriers at the net.

Lauren Hurt led The Citadel with 11 kills, while Erin Bucherl collected 11 digs.  Mikaela Tracy handed out 23 assists.

Samford 3, UNCG 0

GREENSBORO, N.C. ---- After a tightly-contested opening set, the Samford offense came alive against UNCG as the Bulldogs closed with two convincing set wins to earn a 3-0 sweep over the Spartans in Greensboro Friday night.

Samford (13-6, 5-0 SoCon) need a late rally to win the opening set but won convincingly in the final two games.  The 25-8 score in set two is the Bulldogs’ largest margin of victory over a SoCon opponent so far this season.

Coming off a tough matchup against Furman last weekend, middle blocker Lauren Hutchinson returned to form Friday, leading the team with 14 kills and a .480 clip on 25 swings with two errors.  Michaela Reesor led the team in attacks with 31, scoring ten kills with only two errors.  Alexis Bauer led the defense with 21 digs while Chelsi Carter and Casey Garvey each added 12 towards the team’s total of 61, the highest total in a three-set match so far this season.  Garvey also tallied 37 assists for her fourth double-double of the season, her second in conference.

The UNCG (8-8, 3-2 SoCon) offense was led by Olivia Humphries with 14 kills and a .344 clip while Karrian Chambers was close behind with ten.  Chambers would add ten digs as well, good for a double-double.

The Spartans scored the first two points of the opening frame and the teams traded points back-and-forth for the beginning of the set, as UNCG held the two-point lead eventually moving ahead 10-8.  UNCG extended the lead to four, up 12-8, but Samford answered back quickly scoring three in a row to draw within one, down 11-8.  The Spartans moved their lead back up to three points as Samford took a timeout down 17-14.  The Bulldogs scored two quick points out of the break to draw back within one, down 17-16, forcing the host team to call a timeout.  Samford tied it at 19-19 and fought back shortly thereafter to tie it again at 21-21 as UNCG took another timeout.  A kill by Elizabeth Neisler gave Samford its first lead of the match, up 23-22, and the Bulldogs concluded the late rally to win the opening set 27-25.

Samford earned the early momentum in set two, jumping ahead to a 6-1 lead as UNCG took a timeout.  The Bulldog offense continued to dominate, jumping ahead by seven points, up 13-6 at the halfway point.  Samford further extend its lead into double digits, hitting the 20-point mark up by 13, 20-7.  Samford completed a 9-0 run, up 23-7, before UNCG would score a point to make it 23-8.  The Bulldogs closed the set out with two in a row to win 25-8, the largest margin of victory for Samford in conference play this season.

Samford’s momentum carried in set two as they jumped up 6-2 before UNCG fought back within two, down 7-5.  The Bulldogs charged forward with five unanswered points to build a seven-point lead, up 12-5.  Samford would continue to pull away as a 4-1 run pushed the lead to double digits, up 16-6.  The Spartans would narrow the gap slightly, but the Bulldogs continued to apply pressure eventually winning the set 25-16 to close out the 3-0 sweep.

Elon 3, Chattanooga 0

ELON, N.C. – An even balance on offense and defense helped the Elon volleyball team to a sweep of Chattanooga, 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-19), tonight, Oct. 5, in Alumni Gym. The Phoenix improves to 9-11 (2-3 SoCon), while the Lady Mocs fall to 8-12 (2-3 SoCon).

The Phoenix defense out blocked the Lady Mocs 8-0 with senior Celia Rose Eddy accounting for four blocks. Sophomore Kris Harris and freshman Ana Nicksic each finished the night with three blocks.

Eddy also led the maroon and gold on offense with a career-high 14 kills. Freshman Megan Gravley tallied nine kills off 16 attempts with no errors to hit .562, while Harris also recorded nine kills.

With the Phoenix down one in the first set, 6-5, two kills by Eddy and one by Harris helped Elon score five unanswered to take a four-point advantage and force a Chattanooga timeout. After the Lady Mocs closed the gap to two, 17-15, kills by Chanelle Smith and Gravley and an ace by Ali Deatsch put the Phoenix back up by four, 20-16. With Elon leading 21-17, the maroon and gold ended the set on four straight points off kills by Eddy and Gravley, an ace by Nicksic and a block by Eddy and D. Smith to win 25-17.

Kills from Harris and C. Smith and a block by Nicksic and Harris put Elon up by five, 10-5, at the beginning of the second set. With the Phoenix leading by six, 14-8, the serve of Maggie Reichard helped Elon to a 4-0 run and claimed a 10-point advantage, 18-8. Elon held on and took a two-set lead after a 25-17 second-set victory.

The Lady Mocs kept the third set tight at the beginning with six ties before the score reached seven-all. From there the Phoenix went on a 6-2 run with the help of blocks by Harris, Gravley, Eddy and Nicksic and two kills by Harris to take the lead by four, 13-9. Chattanooga pulled within one, 15-14, before three straight by the maroon and gold put the Phoenix back up by four, 18-14. With Elon leading by three, 20-17, the Phoenix scored five of the last seven points to win the set off a kill by Eddy, 25-19, and take the match sweep.