Boxscore

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ? Senior middle blocker Leslee Ball (Sycamore, Ill.) recorded a match-high tying 14 kills and senior setter Bethany Herndon (Richmond, Texas) posted a team-high 31 assists to lead Chattanooga (7-6, 3-0) to a 3-0 victory over Davidson (5-10, 0-2) Sunday afternoon at Maclellan Gym in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Lady Mocs move to 3-0 in the Southern Conference with wins of 30-27, 30-21 and 30-25 and remain in a first place tie with the College of Charleston. The win is Chattanooga's fifth straight victory and fourth consecutive shutout.

The first half of Game 1 featured six ties and four lead changes as the Lady Mocs battled out to a 12-11 advantage before three errors by the Wildcats extended the lead to 15-11. Chattanooga would maintain a lead of at least three points until Davidson rallied to close to within 22-21 on a kill and three UTC errors. The Lady Mocs quickly pulled back ahead, 26-22, with a 4-1 run fueled by two Ball kills and held on for a 30-27 victory to go up 1-0 in the match.

Game 2 was a vastly different story as Chattanooga came out strong and jumped out to a 9-2 lead before Davidson closed to 18-9. The Wildcats would register back-to-back points to make the score 18-11 but that would be as close as they would get the rest of the game as the Lady Mocs maintained at least a seven point lead before closing out the game with a 30-21 victory.

Down 2-0 in the match, Davidson fought back in the third game as they battled out to leads of 14-12 and 17-15. The Wildcats eventually extended to a 22-19 lead before a game-changing 7-0 run by Chattanooga put the Lady Mocs ahead 26-22. From there they would registers four consecutive kills, two by senior outside hitter Jamie Engel (Troy, Ill.) to close out the game, and the match, with a 30-25 victory.

Freshman setter Hayley Lawson paced the offense with a match-high 34 assists and added 15 digs while senior outside hitter Katie Pierucci finished with a match-high tying 14 kills as well as 12 digs. Senior libero Lindsay Woeste led the defense with a team-high 19 digs and was joined by freshman defensive specialist Jennifer Chamblee with 10 digs. Junior middle blocker Kittery Neale rounded out the offensive attack with 12 kills while junior middle blocker Alison Dwyer added nine kills.

For the Lady Mocs, in addition to the performances of Ball and Herndon, junior libero Lara Newberry (Chattanooga, Tenn.) posted a match-high 24 digs while senior outside hitter Kelsey Amundson (Houston, Texas) added seven kills and 15 digs. Engel finished with seven kills, six digs and a season-high tying four service aces. Herndon and Ball added 10 and eight digs, respectively, in addition to their contributions offensively and junior setter Michaela Huff (Dallas, Texas) added 13 digs.

The Lady Mocs' string of four consecutive shutouts represents only the third time that the program has recorded at least four straight shutouts and the first since 1986. That season, the fourth year squad shutout its first six opponents from September 5-13 and shutout nine of its first 10 opponents. The only other occurrence was in the program's first year when Chattanooga shutout four teams on September 24, 1983.

The Lady Mocs will be back in action on Tuesday, September 25, when they host Kennesaw State in the first ever meeting between the two schools. First serve is set for 7 p.m.

Notes

Jamie Engel posted three consecutive aces in the first game. She posted a total of seven aces in the Lady Mocs two weekend matches ... the last time Chattanooga recorded five straight victories was last season from September 9-13.