Oct. 11, 2009

BOONE, N.C. ---- The Samford University volleyball team was handed its first Southern Conference loss Sunday by Appalachian State in Boone, N.C. The Bulldogs fell in a hard-fought five-set battle (25-16, 21-25, 25-19, 17-25, 14-16). The loss is Samford's first in eight games and its first road loss since it fell at Dayton on Sept. 12. The Bulldogs fall to 11-8, 5-1 SoCon while the Mountaineers move to 8-12, 4-2 SoCon.

It was a back-and-forth battle for five games as Samford (11-8, 5-1 SoCon) won the first and third sets while Appalachian State (8-12, 4-2 SoCon) won the second and fourth sets before taking the final tie-breaker fifth set. The Bulldogs out-blocked the Mountaineers, 13-11, but Appalachian State came out on top in every other statistical category.

"We played very immature today, which we talked about all week, but we still could not combat," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "Katie Luckman and Sarah Gardner gave up sparks off the bench but it still wasn't enough to get us over that hump in the fifth set to win the match."

Hillary Fountain led the Bulldogs in hitting against the Mountaineers, posting a .455 hitting percentage with six kills on 11 attempts and only one error. She also dished out 38 assists and had nine digs and one block assist. Allie Bettinger just missed a double-double, tallying 11 kills and 8 digs while also grabbing two block assists. Sheriden Stangohr led the Bulldogs in kills with 13 while also grabbing a team-high 18.5 points, one assist, three aces and five block assists.

Shelby Brandon tallied six kills while leading the Bulldogs in blocks with two block solos and five block assists. Elizabeth Neisler grabbed seven kills while Katie Luckman and Rachel Gadberry added two kills each. Luckman also had one dig and one block assist while Gadberry had two block solos, four block assists, one assist and one dig. Alexis Bauer tallied 23 digs while Casey Garvey added eight and Samantha Bland added seven. Garvey also had four aces and one assist while Bland had one assist and one ace. Sarah Gardner had an ace, an assist and a dig.

The Mountaineers were led by Maggie Seeds and Kelly Rhein who posted 16 and 10 kills, respectively. Seeds also posted a team-high .407 hitting percentage. Kasey Sails posted a double-double, dishing out 48 assists and 13 digs while also serving up a team-high three aces. Casey Engelgau led the back row with 22 digs and Seeds and Caroline Sedon led in blocks with five block assists each.

Samford will be back in action on Wednesday as it travels to Troy, Ala., to finally play that match originally scheduled for Sept. 8.

Appalachian State 3, Samford 2

Samford jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in set one with the help of two Mountaineer errors followed by a block by Stangohr and Brandon. Appalachian State quickly responded, however, with three straight points to tie the score. With a kill by Stangohr and another ASU error, Samford took a two-point lead and fought to keep that lead for four points until the Mountaineers tied the score at seven on an ace by Seeds.

The Bulldogs then went on a 6-0 run to take a 13-7 lead and although Appalachian State fought back, Samford held the lead as ASU cut the lead to five. The Bulldogs decided to burn a timeout and went on 6-2 run to win the first set, 25-16, on kills by Stangohr, Bettinger and Fountain along with an ace by Stangohr and a block by Gadberry.

A kill by Seeds got Appalachian State on the board first in set two but a service error by Sauls evened the score. Stangohr responded with a kill to put the Bulldogs up by one, but followed with an error to tie the score again. After the Mountaineers took a 4-2 lead, it was a back-and-forth game until the score was tied at nine. The Mountaineers then when on a 4-1 run to take the 13-10 lead and force Samford to take a timeout.

Samford responded out of the break and put together a 5-1 run to take over the lead, 15-14, and force Appalachian State to call a timeout. The Mountaineers answered out of the break and switched the momentum in their favor. With a kill by Rhein and an error by Gardner, they were back up by one. Samford fought to stay close but ASU forged ahead and won the second set, 25-21.

Appalachian State jumped out to an early two-point lead in set three but Samford quickly responded an 8-2 run, with the help of kills by Neisler, Stanoghr and Gadberry and a few ASU errors, to take a four-point lead. Samford continued to control the ball in the third set and kept its six-point lead until halfway through the set. After an ASU timeout, the Mountaineers fought to get within three, but Samford responded and pushed the lead back out to six and went on to win, 25-19.

Samford grabbed an early five-point lead as Neisler sparked it with a kill to get her team on the board and the Bulldogs carried that into an 8-4 run to force Appalachian State to take an early timeout. With Samford leading 9-4, Appalachian State put together an 8-3 run to tie the score at 12. The Mountaineers then added three straight points to grab the three-point lead and Samford called a timeout to talk it over. The Bulldogs came out of the break and added three points to ASU's one to tie the score at 16, but Appalachian State charged ahead, pushing its lead out to eight and taking set four, 25-17.

The Mountaineers grabbed back-to-back blocks to go ahead 2-0 at the top of the fifth set. They eventually pushed the lead out to five, 8-3, but Samford scored four straight points to get within one. After an ASU timeout, Samford tied the score at nine on an error by Becca Norris and a block by Gadberry and Brandon, then took the 10-9 lead on another error by Norris. Rhein answered back to tie the score at 11. Both teams fought through three more ties, but Appalachian State would go on to win the tie-breaker, 16-14.