NASHVILLE ? In a tight, closely fought battle in the state capital, the Lady Mocs volleyball team dropped a close decision Wednesday night to Belmont, 3-1. The Bruins took the match 25-21, 25-18, 20-25, and 28-26 to improve to 7-4 on the season, while the Lady Mocs drop to 3-7.
Aurore Kullak led the team with a season-high 12 kills, while
Cassie Conner contributed to the offense with 26 assists.
Lara Newberry, in typical fashion, led all players with 31 digs on the night. Newberry is now only 205 digs away from the NCAA's career digs record of 2,791.
“I'm really happy with the way we fought tonight,” Head Coach
Lisa Rhodes said. We were very competitive, especially in the third and fourth sets. I saw some fight in us tonight, and that was a big positive.”
In the first set, the Lady Mocs remained close with the Bruins throughout the duration of the set, but a late rally by Belmont proved to be enough to take the set, 25-21.
Ellie Kuhn and
Aurore Kullak paced the Lady Mocs will three kills each in the set. Both players were extremely effective as well, as Kuhn posted a hitting percentage of .400, while Kullak was even better at .600.
In the second set, Belmont flexed its defensive muscles, as the Bruins held the Lady Mocs to a -.059 hitting percentage. The Belmont defense was aided the Lady Mocs as UTC committed 11 errors in the frame. In the set UTC was held to only three kills as opposed to 15 from Belmont. Kuhn provided the majority of the offense for Chattanooga with two kills.
In the third set, the scrappiness the Lady Mocs showed in the first two frames translated into a big lead to start the set, and a win, 25-20. With both teams nodded up at 8-apiece, the Lady Mocs would then go on a 14-5 run to put UTC up 22-13. Kullak led the squad with three kills in the set, while four others recorded kills of their own. Newberry helped keep the Bruin defense in check with 13 digs in the frame.?
The next set turned out to be one of the best offensive frames put together by the Lady Mocs all season. Chattanooga recorded 15 kills and only committed two attack errors in the set, for a .351 hitting percentage, but Belmont held strong to eek out the set 28-26. Kullak had five kills, tied for the most in the set, while Kuhn,
Jessica Scott, and
Ashley Yeager had three kills apiece. The Lady Mocs found itself down early in the set 13-7, only to roar back with five straight points to come within one of the lead. Both teams would then exchange points and the lead several times all the way to a 26-all tie. From there, the Bruins would extinguish all of the Lady Mocs' hopes of a fifth, and decisive set, with two straight points, to take the set, and the match.
“In the fourth set we did a really good job of spreading the offense out,” said Rhodes. Everybody stepped up, and to Belmont's credit, they had some big digs at the end. We swung aggressively and it was just a very exciting game to watch.”
The Lady Mocs will return to the road this weekend for the UAB/Samford Invitational in Birmingham, Ala. The tournament will begin on Friday as UTC takes on Florida International at 3 p.m., and then Alabama A&M at 6 p.m. On Saturday, the Lady Mocs will wrap up the tournament with a 5 p.m. showdown with in-state foe, Memphis. ?
