Nov. 9, 2007

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford volleyball team notched its first-ever win over Eastern Kentucky Friday night which also marked the Bulldogs' first win in the brand new Pete Hanna Center. The Bulldogs defeated the Colonels in three games (30-21, 30-21, 30-25). The Bulldogs improve to 15-13, 10-9 in the OVC while EKU falls to 5-24, 4-15 in the OVC.

Sophomore middle blocker Sheriden Stangohr led the Bulldogs with kills with 14 and blocks, grabbing three block assists and one block solo while also hitting .419 and posting two kills. Junior middle blocker Kirstein Sosnowski posted a career-high hitting percentage (.688) while having 12 kills, two assists and one block assists. Freshman outside hitter Samantha Bland and junior outside hitter Sara Sears both grabbed 13 kills, while Bland posted five kills and one block solo and Sears added one block assist.

"Kirstein (Sosnowski) play very well tonight," Samford head coach Michelle Durban said. She had a great offensive performance. Our serve receive was key to allow us to be successful offensively."

Freshman setter Hillary Fountain posted 40 assists and added two kills, five digs, and two block assists. Junior Libero Courtney Gay had 12 digs, one assist and one ace while sophomore Sarah Gardner posted one kills, two assists and eight digs. Senior middle blocker Angela Dempski also added nine kills while hitting .450 and posted one ace, four digs, one block solo and one block assist. The Bulldogs out-blocked their opponent 7-3 and out-hit them by over .200.

Samford will honor its seniors Robin Bishop and Angela Demspki in a pre-game ceremony before Saturday's match against Morehead State. The match will mark the last regular season match for the Bulldogs in the Ohio Valley Conference and Samford is playing for their first bid into the OVC Tournament and for their first winning season in school history. First serve is at 2 p.m., in the Pete Hanna Center.

Samford 3, Eastern Kentucky 0

Eastern Kentucky started game one out with a service error to give Samford its first point of the match, and the Bulldogs went on an 11-5 run to take a seven point lead. Samford completely took over the game and pushed its lead out to nine, finally winning game one 30-21.

Game two began almost the same as game one. EKU quickly committed an error to give Samford the first lead of the game but then answered back with a kill to tie the game at one. A Samford error and two EKU kills gave the Colonels a three-point lead but Samford answered back tying the game on a Colonel error, a kill by Stangohr and a block by Stangohr and Fountain. From that point on Samford took control, fighting through four ties to eventually take the lead for the rest of the game. The Bulldogs went on to win, 30-21.

Fountain grabbed the first point on a kill in game three, but the Colonels answered back and quickly took a six-point lead. EKU lead for the first half of the game but Samford fought back to tie it at 16 on kills by Bland, Dempski, Sears and Stangohr. That seemed to be the turning point for the Bulldogs as soon charged to a three point lead and took control of the game. An EKU error pushed Samford's lead to four and an ace by Gay sealed the Colonels fate as the Bulldogs took game three, 30-25.