Boxscore
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ? Senior middle blocker Leslee Ball (Sycamore, Ill.) pounded out 25 kills to the tune of a .500 hitting percentage while senior setter Bethany Herndon (Richmond, Texas) dished out 41 assists and posted 17 digs to lead Chattanooga (12-8, 7-1) to a 3-0 victory over UNC Greensboro (12-11, 5-4) Saturday afternoon at Maclellan Gym in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Lady Mocs defeated the Spartans 30-23, 30-26 and 31-29 to move into first place in the Southern Conference.
Trailing 7-5 in Game 1, Chattanooga hit their stride as they scored nine consecutive points, three on kills by Ball, to take a 14-7 lead. The Lady Mocs soon extended that lead to 22-12, aided by a pair of kills from senior middle blocker Julianna Martinez (Austin, Texas) and freshman outside hitter Aurore Kullak (Beloeil, Belgium), before UNC Greensboro closed to within 27-21 with a 9-5 run. That would be as close as the Spartans would get as UTC wrapped the game, and a 1-0 match lead, with a 30-27 victory.
Game 2 was a tightly contested affair that saw UNCG pull out to leads of 6-3 and 11-8 before Chattanooga rallied to take the lead, 13-11, with a 5-0 run. That would be a lead they would hold until a Spartan rally gave them the lead at 22-20. Tht lead would be short lived as UTC rallied to pull ahead 23-22 and held on for a 30-26 victory and a 2-0 match lead.
The third game featured five ties early on before the Lady Mocs pulled out to a 17-13 advantage off of an 8-4 run. The Spartans would not go quietly, closing to 23-22 before a 4-0 run put them ahead 27-24. Three straight kills by Ball keyed a Chattanooga 4-0 run to put them in the lead again at 28-27. The two teams exchanged the next four points to make the score 30-29 UTC before a service ace by Ball put the game, and the match, away 31-29.
For UNC Greensboro, junior middle blocker Kaitlyn Nortz and senior outside hitter Katherine Hart led the offensive attack with 16 and 12 kills, respectively, while sophomore setter Lisa Falwell notched a team-high 40 assists. Defensively, sophomore libero Catherine Hanners led the way with 20 digs and was joined by sophomore defensive specialist Kayleigh Knerr and sophomore outside hitter Branagan Fuller with 10 digs each. Fuller added nine kills while Hart posted eight digs.
In addition to the performances of Ball and Herndon, Chattanooga was led by junior libero Lara Newberry (Chattanooga, Tenn.) with a match-high 28 digs. Senior outside hitter Jamie Engel (Troy, Ill.) added 12 digs while Kullak finished with nine kills and five digs. Herndon finished the day averaging 13.66 assists per game will Ball pounded out an average of 8.33 kills.
The Lady Mocs return to action tomorrow when they host Elon at 2 p.m. at Maclellan Gym.
Notes
Newberry is now 38 digs away from breaking the school mark of 2,058 set by Kylie Hunter from 1990-93.
