Nov. 21, 2008

Final Stats

GREENSBORO, N.C. ---- The Samford University volleyball team swept Davidson (25-14, 25-22, 25-22) Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Volleyball Tournament held at Fleming Gymnasium on the campus of UNC Greensboro. The Bulldogs advance to the semifinals to take on South Division No. 2 seed Furman in a 1 p.m. CT match-up on Saturday.

Furman defeated North Division No. 3 seed Chattanooga Friday morning in a five-set battle.

The Bulldogs (28-4, 16-2 SoCon) served up 14 aces in the whole match, nine in the first set alone and held the Wildcats to just .105 in hitting percentage. In set two, Samford hit. 417 as a team while holding Davidson (12-20, 7-11 SoCon) to just .045 and out-blocked the Wildcats, 2-1. However in the final two sets of the match, Davidson put up good fight but the Bulldogs were able to get the 3-0 win.

"Davidson gave us a real push in sets two and three and played very well," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "We had our best serving set of the year in set one and then they responded and we had our worst set serving all year. However, I liked our focus in our first taste of playoff volleyball but I want more determination."

SoCon Player of the Year Ashley Adams led the Bulldogs hitting .529 while knocking down 10 kills on 17 attempts with only one error. Kirstein Sosnowski notched 11 kills while hitting .429 and grabbing one dig and two block assists. Rachel Gadberry had seven kills and hit .385 while grabbing one dig and three block assists. Sheriden Stangohr had five kills, one block assist and one block solo.

Hillary Fountain dished out 36 assists while grabbing two kills, two aces, two block assists and one dig. Courtney Gay led the Bulldogs in digs with nine followed by Sarah Gardner with five digs. Gay also had one assist and one ace while Gardner grabbed one assist and five aces. Samantha Bland led the Bulldogs in aces with a career-high six and had one assist and three digs. Sara Sears had five kills and two digs.

The Bulldogs will play Furman Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. CT in the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament. Live stats and video streaming will be available for each match on www.soconsports.com and a full recap and results can be found at www.samfordsports.com upon the completion of the match.

Samford 3, Davidson 0

Davidson took the first point of the first set but Stangohr immediately knocked down a kill to get the Bulldogs on the board and tie the score. A set error by Davidson gave Samford a 2-1 lead and an ace by Gardner put the Bulldogs ahead by two. Samford kept a one-point lead as the Wildcats tried to keep up, tying the score four times before the Bulldogs took a three-point lead (10-7) and forced Davidson to call a timeout.

The Wildcats came out of the break with a kill but Samford then went on a 5-2 run to take a six-point lead before forcing another Davidson timeout. Samford then rattled off three straight points to go ahead by nine on two aces by Gardner and a block by Stangohr and Fountain. Davidson scored one more kill but the Bulldogs charged ahead, keeping nine-point lead and winning set one, 25-14.

Davidson served up two aces to take a quick 2-0 lead in the beginning of set two and a ball-handling error by Gadberry put the Wildcats ahead by three. A service error by Davidson gave Samford its first point of the set and the Bulldogs eventually got within one-point on kills by Sosnowski and Fountain and a block by Sosnowski and Gadberry. Samford kept it close, never letting the Wildcats get back ahead by more than two points but the Bulldogs finally called a timeout as Davidson held a 12-10 lead.

Sosnowski knocked down a kill to get the Bulldogs within one-point again after the break, but the Wildcats forged ahead ands took a four-point lead on several kills. Samford then went on an 8-3 run to take a 20-19 lead, accompanied by kills by Fountain, Stangohr, Adams and Gadberry. After Davidson used their first timeout of the set, the score was tied after a Samford service error. However, the Bulldogs grabbed two more kills by Gadberry and Sosnowski and a block by Stangohr and soon were ahead by two points. Davidson called its final timeout of the set but the Bulldogs went on to win the second set, 25-22, on a block by Fountain and Stangohr and a kill by Sears.

Adams rattled off a kill to give Samford the first point of the set for the first time in the match but the scored evened up with a Samford service error. The two teams traded errors to make the score tied at two and then each team scored kills to make it 3-3. The Bulldogs then went on a 6-3 run to take a four-point lead and force Davidson to take a timeout. Samford then took a five-point lead on a Wildcat service error before Bland served up three consecutive aces to go ahead by eight points.

Davidson took another timeout and went on a 6-4 run to get within five points before Samford asked for a timeout. After the break, the Bulldogs lead fluctuated from four to five points until Davidson went on a 4-2 run to cut Samford's lead to two. Samford took its final timeout and within back-to-back kills by Adams and an error by Davidson, the Bulldogs took the third and final set, 25-22.