Oct. 3, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University volleyball team will host Appalachian State and Western Carolina this weekend in the second week of league play. The matches will be the Bulldogs' first Southern Conference matches to be held at home in the Pete Hanna Center. Samford will face Appalachian State on Saturday and Western Carolina on Sunday.

Samford (13-2, 2-0 SoCon) grabbed its first two conference wins last weekend in sweeps over Davidson and Georgia Southern on the road. The Bulldogs are now on a six-match win streak and look to extend that streak over the Mountaineers and Catamounts.

"Appalachian State has a very accomplished history in the SoCon the past five or six years and will be a great next test for our Bulldog team," Samford head coach Derek Schroeder said. "Western Carolina is playing very well right now and will be a tough test as well. The girls are looking at this weekend as the third and fourth teams we will play in our new conference and after this phase of new teams, we want to be grouped in with the best teams."

The Bulldogs had a breakout weekend against Davidson and Georgia Southern. As a team, Samford hit season highs of .452 on the weekend and .474 against the Eagles on Sunday. Five Bulldog players hit over .400 on the weekend, one of those players hit above .500 and one over .700.

The Bulldogs are led by current SoCon Player of the Month Ashley Adams. The senior outside hitter sports a .397 hitting percentage and is averaging 4.22 kills per set so far, and is also second on the team in digs (111). She is ranked 21st in the country, according to the NCAA, in hitting percentage and 20th in kills per set.

Hillary Fountain has also been a consistent leader for Samford. The sophomore setter is ranked fifth in the country in assists per set (11.62 and 26th in aces (0.46), and is this week's reigning SoCon Player of the Week. She is to be given much credit for the Bulldogs' incredible hitting numbers over the past weekend. With Fountain distributing the ball, the Bulldogs had a 68 percent side-out efficiency against Davidson and a 78 percent efficiency against Georgia Southern.

As a team, Samford is ranked sixth in the country in hitting percentage (.308), 22nd in aces per set (1.81), 29th in assists per set (12.71), 36th in kills per set (13.67) and tied for 16th in win-loss percentage (.867).

"This week in practice is the first time we have broken down our team play, analyzed it, and moved forward with things we were not executing well." Schroeder said. "Turning a weakness into a strength would be a great accomplishment this weekend, if we can achieve it."

Appalachian State (4-12, 0-2 SoCon) comes off a weekend in which it fell in four sets to UNC Greensboro and five sets to Elon. The Mountaineers led the Phoenix 2-0 going into the break, but a late surge by Elon proved to be too much and the Phoenix won three sets in a row to take the match.

Western Carolina (3-12, 1-1 SoCon) enters this weekend on the heels of a win over Elon on Saturday. The Catamounts took the Phoenix to five sets, leading the match 2-0 going into the break. Elon won sets three and four but WCU held off the Phoenix and won the final set to take the match.

Match play begins with the Mountaineers on Saturday at 2 p.m., and then on Sunday, the Bulldogs and Catamounts will face off in a 2 p.m. match. Both matches will be held in the Pete Hanna Center and admission is free. A full recap and results will be available on www.samfordsports.com upon the completion of each match.