Sept. 5, 2008

Final Stats

KANSAS CITY, Mo. ---- The Samford University volleyball team wrapped up day one of the UMKC Kangaroo Klassic with a sweep over the host team Kangaroos on Friday night. The Bulldogs took all three games (25-14, 25-7, 25-15) making them 2-0 in the tournament and 5-1 on the season. This marks the best start for Samford volleyball since the inception of the program.

"We talked about sustained pressure and took it to them from the first point, never looking back," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder. "Our defensive transition was fast and clean. We had them in trouble serving 20 times with six aces and blocked nine balls while digging 36. I'm very proud of our first contact tonight."

Sheriden Stangohr led the Bulldogs with a career-high .833 hitting percentage in front of a hometown crowd. This is the second time this season that she has set a career high, the last being last weekend against Mercer. Stangohr also posted five kills on six attempts with no errors while blocking five balls, two alone and three assisted. Samantha Bland led the Bulldogs in kills with 10 while hitting a career-high .526, grabbing one ace and five digs.

Rachel Gadberry lead in block assists with four while also posting three kills, two digs and one ace. Hillary Fountain dished out 35 assists, hitting .500 with two kills on four attempts. She also had a team-high three aces with three digs and two block assists. Courtney Gay led the team in digs with 12 and posted two digs while Katie Luckman was right behind her with seven digs and one ace.

Freshman Katie Weber saw action in her second match as a Bulldog, hitting 1.000 with scoring on all three of her attacks at the ball. Sara Sears was second on the team in kills with eight, hitting .389 while grabbing one dig and two block assists. Kirstein Sosnowski had seven kills, hitting .357, and took away one digs and three block assists. Sarah Gardner knocked down one kill and dug five balls.

The Bulldogs out-blocked the Kangaroos nine to one and had only four errors on 80 attempts.

Samford will play in their third match of the weekend Saturday morning as they take on Morgan State at 9 a.m. Follow all the action via live stats on www.umkckangaroos.com. A full recap and results will be available upon completion of the match on www.samfordsports.com.

Samford 3, UMKC 0

Samford came right out of the gate in set one to score the first two points on a kill by Sears and block by Sosnowski and Gadberry. UMKC was able to catch up and get on the board but Samford quickly raced out to a six-point lead. With the score at 25-15, the Bulldogs would go on a 10-2 run to win the first set 25-14. Samford had the final six points of the game with the Roos committing three consecutive errors for the first three followed by back-to-back kills from Sears and a block by Fountain and Stangohr.

The Bulldogs completely dominated the second set, allowing the Kangaroos to score only seven points. Samford scored the first 11 points with the help of two errors by UMKC but largely due to the blocking effort of Sosnowski, Gadberry and Sears and three aces by Fountain. After Samford put its 11th point on the board, the Roos grabbed their first point of the set. However, with the score at 11-1, Samford would go on a 14-6 run to win the second set, 25-7.

In set three, Samford gained the first point on an error by UMKC, but the Kangaroos quickly evened the score. There were three more ties before Samford took over the lead and went ahead by as much as 10. UMKC tried to fight back but never got within more than nine points before the Bulldogs took set three, 25-15.