Boxscore

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ? Senior middle blocker Leslee Ball (Sycamore, Ill.) pounded a match-high 14 kills and senior setter Bethany Herndon (Richmond, Texas) recorded a team-high 30 assists to lead Chattanooga (8-6, 3-0) to a 3-0 victory over Kennesaw State (2-15, 0-1 A-Sun) Tuesday evening at Maclellan Gym in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Lady Mocs defeated the Owls 30-13, 30-18 and 30-22 to win their sixth consecutive match and post their fifth straight shutout.

Chattanooga jumped ahead early in Game 1, taking leads of 9-3 and 14-5 before the Owls pulled to within seven points at 17-10. That would be as close as they would get as the Lady Mocs, fueled by three kills from Ball and two each from senior outside hitter Jamie Engel (Troy, Ill.) and junior right side hitter Laura Nethery (Hixson, Tenn.), put together a 13-3 run to close out the game 30-13 and take a 1-0 match lead. Nethery recorded five of her seven kills in the game.

The Lady Mocs picked up right where they left off in Game 1, jumping out to leads of 4-0 and 8-3 at the start of Game 2. It wouldn't get any better for Kennesaw State as UTC continued to pull away and extended their lead to 16-8 by capitalizing off of a number of Owl miscues. Chattanooga would go on to wrap up the game 30-18 to secure a 2-0 match lead.

Game 3 was a different story, however, as KSU put up a fight to keep the match alive. After a 9-4 run by the Lady Mocs to begin the game, the Owls rallied to tie the score at 10-10 with a 6-1 run, and would tie the score again at 13-13, before Chattanooga pulled back ahead 20-15. Kennesaw State would get to within four points twice, the last time at 26-22, before three kills over the next four points led the Lady Mocs to a 30-22 Game 3 victory and their sixth consecutive win.

Sophomore setter Ginny Frederick paced the Owls with 20 assists while sophomore outside hitter Jenny Black posted a team-high nine kills. Sophomore libero Selina O'Leary finished with a match-high 10 digs and redshirt freshman outside hitter Sabrita Gulley added seven kills and nine digs. Sophomore middle hitter Rachel Odom added a match-high four blocks.

For Chattanooga, Leslee Ball paced all hitters with 14 kills and finished with a team-high nine digs while Nethery posted a .556 hitting percentage, connecting for seven kills in nine attempts. Senior middle blocker Sarah Bass (Baton Rouge, La.) added eight kills while junior setter Michaela Huff (Dallas, Texas) finished with eight digs.

The Lady Mocs have now won six consecutive matches and shutout their last five opponents.

The Lady Mocs will be back in action on Saturday, September 29, when they travel to Statesboro, Georgia to take on the Georgia Southern Eagles. First serve for the Southern Conference match is set for 7 p.m.

Notes

Ball is now two digs away from tying for fifth place all-time on the Lady Mocs kills list with 1,131 career kills ... Time of the match was 1:22.