Samford 3, Chattanooga 1
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Inspired by their "Dig Orange" match in memory of their former teammate Caroline Neisler, the Samford University volleyball team downed Chattanooga 3-1, (25-21, 25-23, 27-29, 25-22) inside the Pete Hanna Center on Wednesday.
Redshirt freshman Kate Neisler, sister to Caroline, played motivated and led the team with 18 kills (.419) and tallied 13 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.
Neisler was given copious amounts of support from her teammates throughout the match as freshman setter Taylor Anderton notched her fifth double-double of the season with 48 assists and a team high 18 digs while junior outside Erin Bognar picked up her fourth double-double with 16 kills and 14 digs.
The Bulldogs (10-11, 5-6 SoCon) jumped out early on the Mocs (20-5, 9-3 SoCon) by taking the first two sets of the match 25-21 and 25-23. The two hard fought sets included 10 ties and 6 lead changes to which Samford prevailed both times.
Chattanooga came out of the intermission and took advantage of a complacent Samford offense that struggled early on as UTC took a 12-7 lead to which it wouldn't give up until Samford tied the set 24-24. The two teams battled back and forth Chattanooga reeled off a pair of points on a Kristy Wieser kill and a Rachel Petkosh service aced to bring the match 2-1.
With momentum on the Mocs side to raced out to a 10-4 lead on the Bulldogs but Samford immediately rallied to close down the Chattanooga lead to 13-12. The Mocs opened back up another lead 22-18 late in the set but T.J. Russell held serve while Kiahna Wicks stepped up to record a kill along with a pair of blocks which was capped off by Neisler's match point kill to end the comeback 25-22.
Wicks capped off the night with 11 kills (.400) while Russell tallied nine kills (.533) to round out the offensive output from the Samford middles.
Defensively five Bulldogs tallied double-digit dig performances while the team ended with a total of 77 on the night. Anderton (18), Bognar (14) and Neisler (13) tallied impressive performances with their all-around efforts the Bulldogs libero Morgan St. Germain notched 17 digs on the night while defensive specialist Mattie Newson racked up 13 digs.
The Bulldogs continue their homestand with Senior Night which is set for Friday at 7 p.m. when the team takes on SoCon leader Furman University.
ETSU 3, Wofford 1
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Behind a career-high 29 digs from Hailey Aguilar and three players with double figures in kills, the East Tennessee State University volleyball team picked up its second straight four-set victory Wednesday over Wofford (25-23, 25-17, 30-32, 25-23).
In addition to the career performance from Aguilar, the Bucs received 40 assists from Alyssa Kvarta and Khadijah Wiley paced ETSU’s offense with a .379 hitting percentage in 29 attempts to go along with 14 kills.
Both teams struggled in the early going offensively as neither squad had a positive hitting percentage in the first. The Bucs, however, found their offensive groove scoring nine straight points to change a 20-15 deficit into a 24-20 advantage. Wofford had a spurt of offense of its own but a service error gave the Bucs’ the 25-23 set victory.
The Bucs scored 11 of the second set’s first 12 points en route to a 25-17 set victory. Wofford trimmed ETSU’s lead to as little as five points at 13-8 but that is as close as it would get. Freshman AJ Lux powered the Bucs’ offense late in the frame with five of her six kills coming in the second.
ETSU and Wofford were locked in a tight one in the third set. The score was tied at 20 different points during the stanza. The Bucs had match point on four different points but could not close out Wofford in the third as they fell, 32-30.
After totaling 40 kills in the first three sets combined, ETSU’s offense awoke in the fourth frame with 17 kills. Leading the way was Rylee Milhorn, who posted eight of her 15 kills in the stanza, while Briana Allmon added five more. The work offensively by Milhorn, Allmon and the rest of the Bucs was enough to put the Terriers away, 25-23.
ETSU, now 17-9 overall and 8-5 in SoCon play, will hit the road for the final time in the regular season Saturday when it takes on UNCG at 5 p.m. The Bucs knocked off the Spartans earlier this season at Brooks Gym, 3-0.