Western Carolina 3, Chattanooga 1

Chattanooga, Tenn. - The Western Carolina volleyball team downed the Lady Mocs of Chattanooga in four sets (25-18, 25-27, 25-15, 25-23) Saturday afternoon to pick up its first win conference win of the 2012 season behind a solid offensive performance by Jordan Timmermann, who led the Catamounts offensively with a match-high 20 kills, and a career-high 33 digs by junior co-captain Morgan Cochran.

WCU (5-12, 1-1 SoCon) finished with a season-high 12 total blocks and out-blocked the Mocs (7-10, 1-1 SoCon) 12-8. The 92 digs picked up by the Catamounts is the second-highest mark for the season. The seven aces were also a season-high for Western Carolina.

The loss for Chattanooga is its first home loss this season with Western Carolina improving its all-time record to 36-33 over the Mocs. The Catamounts have won their last three matches against Chattanooga.

The Catamounts earned the first set victory behind a solid offensive start by middle blocker Addy George and outside hitter Caitlin Piechota. George began the match with four opening set kills while Piechota added three. Nicole Ford also picked up three aces in the set as the Catamounts cruised to a 25-18 win, with WCU leading by as many as nine in the set.

Set two was much closer throughout as neither team could muster a lead of more than three, as WCU led 16-13. The Lady Mocs answered with a three-point run behind the serve of Bridget Camacho to tie the match at 16. A three-point swing from the Catamounts gave WCU a 20-17 lead, before Chattanooga would answer with a four-point run of its own. From there, neither team was ahead by more than a point until three straight points by Chattanooga when the Catamounts were serving set point gave the Mocs the win of the set, 27-25.

Sophomore Jordan Timmermann picked up offensively in the final two sets, finishing with seven and eight kills in the final two sets. The Catamounts hit their best in the third and fourth sets, hitting at a .382 and a .200 clip to finish the match.  WCU answered Chattanooga’s second set win with a 25-15 win to go into the last set.

Chattanooga would battle to keep the match alive in the fourth, but would only lead twice in the set. WCU earned match point when Abbey Scroggins knocked down a kill off the Tina Nazario assist, but the Mocs extended the match with a kill by Christina Teter. The Catamounts would end things, though, with a 25-23 win.

Caitlin Piechota and Nicole Ford played solid offensively with 13 kills and 10 kills, respectively. Freshman Ford also tied her career-best five blocks. The all-purpose Piechota added a season-high 18 digs and tied her career-best two blocks. Senior captain Abbey Scroggins had five blocks in the match while adding seven kills. Addy George had seven kills and four blocks while hitting at a consistent .240 hitting percentage.

Distributing the offense was freshman setter Tina Nazario. Nazario finished with 45 assists, seven digs and two blocks.

Georgia Southern 3, Furman 0

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Kym Coley and Jamie DeRatt each recorded 10 kills, and the Eagles trailed just once in the match in a 3-0 (25-12, 25-23, 25-15) Southern Conference volleyball victory over Furman Saturday afternoon in Alley Gymnasium.

Coley added three blocks and a pair of digs for the Eagles (11-5, 2-0 SoCon), and DeRatt had 10 digs. Moriah Bellissimo posted nine kills and seven digs, and Meredith Paskert was credited with eight kills and six digs.

Kate Van Dyke had 37 assists for the efficient offense as the Eagles hit .301 as a team with 46 kills and just 12 errors.

Chandler Ambrester had nine kills and nine digs to lead Furman (11-4, 1-1 SoCon), while Natalie Braun posted eight kills and nine digs.

Georgia Southern got off to great starts in all three sets of the match and trailed just once, a 1-0 deficit in the second game.

That margin was erased quickly as a 7-0 Eagle run gave GSU a 6-point advantage. The Paladins chipped away again and again and trimmed the margin to 23-22 on a Christina Dorismond kill. Coley got a kill for the Eagles, but a GSU service error made the score 24-23. Paskert finished off the set with a kill off a Van Dyke assist to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead in the match.

Georgia Southern got off to a 9-2 start in the first set and led by a 20-7 margin at one point before settling for a 25-12 win. The Eagles hit .378 in the set while holding the Paladins to .029.

The third set mirrored the first as Georgia Southern led 15-4 at one point. The Eagles hit .351 in that frame with 17 kills and just four errors.

Davidson 3, Wofford 0

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford volleyball team dropped a 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-17) match to Davidson Saturday night in the Benjamin Johnson Arena in a Southern Conference match.

With the loss, the Terriers fall to 8-5 overall and 0-2 in the Southern Conference, while the Wildcats improve to 5-7 and 1-1 in conference play.

Davidson went out to a quick 8-1 lead in the opening set, but Wofford battled back and cut the lead to 14-12.  The Terriers would pull even at 16, but Wofford would never take a lead as the Wildcats pulled out to a 20-17 margin en route to a 25-20 win.

In the second set, Wofford broke a tie at six with a 3-0 run to take 9-6 lead.  Davidson answer as they flipped an 11-8 deficit into a 19-13 lead with an 8-2 run.  The Wildcats never let the Terriers back into the set as they won 25-16.

Third set was all Davidson as the Wildcats again jumped out to an early lead, 12-5.  Wofford as able to close the margin to 15-10, but Davidson would go on to clinch the set, 25-17, and the match sweep.

Davidson outhit Wofford .417 to .233.  The Wildcats also had 11 service aces and five errors, while the Terriers had only one ace and eight errors.

Amanda Liguori and Rachel Woodlee paced Wofford with nine kills.  Arden Anderson and Taylor Baird followed with six kills.  Anderson had a team-high .455 hitting percentage.  Anderson had team-high two total blocks with one block assist and one solo block.  Her one assists pulls her within two block assists of the all-time record.  Reagan Styles collected nine digs to move into second place all-time with 1,398 digs.  Bekah Dorsey passed out a team-high 16 assists, while Tara Gough followed with 14 assists.

Caroline Brown had a match-high 11 kills and a .455 hitting percentage to lead the Wildcats offensively.  Taylor Pisel followed with nine kills a .643 hitting percentage.  Molly Crenshaw collected 15 digs, while Ariel Lay had 31 assists.

Samford 3, Appalachian State 0

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford Bulldogs earned their second conference win with a 3-0 sweep over Appalachian State.

It is Samford’s (10-6, 2-0 SoCon) first win over Appalachian State (4-12, 0-2 SoCon) since 2009 and marks the 50th career conference win for Schroeder since joining Samford in 2008.  Samford had three players earn double-digit kills, with Hutchinson leading the team with 12 on 15 swings with only one error.  Murphy and Michaela Reesor earned ten kills each, while Alexis Bauer and Chelsi Carter earned double-digit digs with 16 and 11, respectively.

The Mountaineer offense was led by Emily Corrigan with 13 kills while Lauren Brown paced the offense with 27 assists and Courtney Rhein led the defense with 14 digs.

Samford got off to a fast start in the opening frame as they built an 8-3 lead to force Appalachian State into taking an early timeout.  The Mountaineers began to narrow the gap, drawing within two, down 15-13.  Appalachian State eventually drew within one, as a kill by Lindsey Sauls made it 18-17 with Samford regrouping with a timeout.  The Mountaineers would keep it close down the stretch but Samford ended up with the three-point edge to take the set, 25-22.

The Bulldog offense was clicking again early in set two with Samford building a 9-3 lead and maintaining that gap as they eventually pulled ahead 14-8.  The teams traded points evenly until, up 18-12, Samford grabbed four quick points to build a nine-point lead, up 22-13.  Samford reached set point off a Carter service ace but a Samford attack error extended the set.  Reesor ended it quickly on the next rally as a kill gave the Bulldogs the 25-14 win.

The teams traded points evenly to begin the third frame with Samford beginning to creep forward thanks to a 4-1 run to move up 13-9.  Later, up 15-12, Samford used another 4-1 run to further widen the gap, 19-13.  The Mountaineers would only score two points for the remainder of the match, as the Bulldogs cruised to a 25-15 win to complete the 3-0 sweep.

College of Charleston 3, Elon 0

ELON, N.C. – College of Charleston opened the SoCon season with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-16) sweep over Elon on the road on Saturday night.

The Cougars (8-5, 1-0) won their second straight road match while Elon lost its second SoCon match in three days.

CofC hit .370 as a team on the offensive end, the best attacking mark of the season and sixth-best attack percentage in the league so far. The Cougar defense limited Elon to just .155 as no Phoenix players tallied more than seven kills.

Darcy Dorton made 13 kills and eight digs, and Melissa Morello tallied 12 kills and nine digs for the Cougars. Sloane White hit .600 with six kills on 10 attempts with no errors, while Emily Neideffer landed a number of one-timers from the middle with eight kills. Emily Shelton was the only player to reach double-digit digs in the match, tallying 12.

Elon was led by the seven-kill performances of Megan Gravley and Kris Harris. Gravley also made seven digs in the three-set match.

College of Charleston made a late push to take set one, going on an 8-2 run to build a 22-16 lead. The Phoenix rallied to pull the margin to 22-20, but CofC won the next three points on Elon errors to take the first set, 25-20. College of Charleston hit .297 in the set, led by the offense of Dorton (5 kills), Neideffer (4 kills) and Morello (4 kills).

The Cougars got out to a hot start in the second set, grabbing a 7-1 lead and eventually leading 16-7. The closest that Elon would inch was a five-point difference at 18-13, but the Cougars called timeout and rallied to a 25-18 set victory. CofC hit .400 in the second frame with only three attack errors.

College of Charleston kept the momentum going into the third set, again jumping out to an early lead at 7-2. After a Dorton kill put the Cougars up 16-9, Elon was never able to cut the lead to less than seven points as CofC eventually won the third set, 25-16. The Cougars hit .433 in the final set with three service aces, including two from Dorton.

UNCG 3, The Citadel 2

Greensboro, N.C. – The Citadel volleyball team endured its third five-set match in the last five matches as it fell in a tough SoCon opener to UNCG by scores of 19-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-17 and 15-11.

The Bulldogs were led by the efforts of Lauren Hurt (12 kills), Rachael Farrell (11 kills) and Jessica Maxwell (10 kills). The trio combined to give the Cadets 54 total kills and a .220 attack percentage. The Citadel (2-13, 0-1) managed to find an offensive flow due in large part to a 44-assist effort by freshman setter Mikaela Tracy. Farrell and Maxwell also proved to be a force defensively with 11 and 10 digs, respectively. The tandem of Emily Dalton (13 digs) and Amanda Rudnik (10 digs) were also tops among defensive performers.

UNCG (7-6, 2-0) took advantage of an 18-kill, .773 attack percentage performance of Kelsey Sidney. Teammates Lauren Betlach (16 kills) and Karrian Chambers (11 kills) also reached the double-digit kill plateau to give the Spartans a 74-54 advantage on the front row. Meanwhile, on the defensive end UNC Greensboro was able to find success in the form of Kellie Orewiler (24 digs), Katherine Santiago (14 digs) and Emily McMurtrey (13 digs). McMurtrey also handed out 56 assists in the five-set thriller.

The Citadel capitalized on two kills each by Hurt and Farrell, along with three unforced UNCG errors to establish an early 8-6 advantage in the first set. UNCG rallied and went toe-to-toe offensively with the Bulldogs, as the two teams battled through nine ties to make for an eventual 17-17 score. It was there that Maxwell, along with the assistance of kills by Hurt and Farrell, to score six consecutive points and give the Dogs a 23-17 lead. The Spartans scored back-to-back points, trimming the advantage to four, but it was a kill by hurt and a bad set by Emily McMurtrey that gave the Cadets a 25-19 win.

The hard fought match between the two programs continued in the early stages of the second set, as one point separated the game between the first 14 points. UNCG eventually grabbed a three-point lead on a kill by Chambers, which evaporated after four unforced errors pushed The Citadel back in front, 13-11. The back-and-forth battle continued as UNCG scored six unanswered points, including kills by Betlach, Sidney and McMurtrey, to take a 17-13 lead. Kills by Maxwell and Farrell, along with four attack errors, kept the Dogs within striking distance down the stretch, but UNCG completed the 25-20 win to tie the match at one set each.

Both teams battled to grab a decisive edge in the third set with The Citadel assuming an early 5-2 advantage on a kill by d'Angelo. That three-point lead was followed by a 12-9 UNCG run that eventually led to a 14-14 tie. The Bulldogs forced three UNCG errors and used kills by Mikaela Tracy and Mallory Moore to regain the lead, 20-16. The Spartans again reacted with a run, scoring eight of the next 12 points, to force a 24-24 tie. But it was unforced error combined with a Hurt kills that proved decisive in the 26-24 Cadet victory.

With its back against the wall, UNC Greensboro overcame an early 7-7 tie in the fourth set to piece together an 8-3 run, highlighted by three Sidney kills, to move in front 15-10. The Spartans continued to add on the points, stretching the advantage to 22-14 on kills by McMurtrey and Freeman. Despite late scores by Maxwell and Cassie Uribe, UNCG sent the match to a decisive fifth set with a 25-17 win.

UNCG lead the fifth set wire-to-wire after jumping out to an early 4-0 lead. The Bulldogs rallied behind a pair of kills by Rudnik, but the Spartans responded with kills by Morgan Freeman, McMurtrey and Chambers to move back in front 8-4. Following back-to-back points by Rudnik, The Citadel trailed 9-7, but was unable to find an offensive match for Sidney's four points down the stretch as UNCG completed the 15-11 decision.