CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga volleyball team dropped its match against Belmont, 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 19-25, 19-25) Wednesday at Maclellan Gym. With 27 assists and 15 digs, junior Bailee Chastain (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) helped the Lady Mocs on defense and contributed offensively by setting up the team's attack. The loss drops UTC to 8-4 before beginning Southern Conference play Saturday against Elon, while Belmont improved to 6-8 on the season.
Freshman libero Paula Passmore (Merritt, Island, Fla.), sophomore Laura Brock (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and Chastain each registered double-digit digs on the night. Passmore led the team with 24, but Brock and Chastain set season-highs with 17 and 15, respectively.
"I think we can take this loss and learn from it," said head coach Lisa Rhodes. "I feel like we played a little out of sync at times, which is to be expected with a young team. We came out really strong in the first set, then our passing really shut down. It was kind of a domino effect from there once we made one mistake, then there was another. Hopefully, we can take what happened tonight and work on it for this weekend."
Pacing the Lady Mocs' offense was junior middle blocker Courtney Barnes (Franklin, Tenn.), who posted 12 kills along with a block solo. Sophomore middle blocker Ellie Kuhn (San Antonia, Texas) recorded 8 kills and tied a match-high with four blocks, while Brock had nine kills one shy of her fifth double-double on the year.
Sophomore right side Stephanie Harville (Morristown, Tenn.) notched her third block solo of the season and accounted for nine digs and six kills.
In the first set, the Lady Mocs came out quickly grabbing a 15-8 lead on the way to clinching the frame 25-23. With 11 kills and hitting .143, Chattanooga was effective in only committing five mistakes, while its opponent had eight.
The Bruins fought back in the second set recording a .310 hitting percentage escaping with a 23-25 win as the Lady Mocs registered their best hitting performance of the night at .250.
Unable to regroup at the intermission after playing well in set two, the squad recorded seven and eight errors in the next two sets as Belmont rolled 25-19 in each frame. Throughout the night, the young Chattanooga team continued to fight back tying the match 28 times and causing 15 lead changes, but were unable to be consistent.
The Bruins were led by Maggie Johnson posting 17 kills along with 11 digs, Channing Salava with 43 assists and 10 digs and Jenny Gray notching 13 kills and 18 digs. The combination of Johnson and Gray on the outside were too much for the squad as they hit above .225 for the match recording kills at crucial times.
Up next for the Lady Mocs, the SoCon schedule begins as Elon is welcomed to Maclellan Gym Saturday at 2 p.m., while UNC Greensboro comes to town on Sunday for a 5 p.m. tilt. Live statistics and video will be avaliable for both games this weekend on GoMocs.com.
Belmont def. Chattanooga 18-25,25-23,25-19,25-19
Belmont (6-8) (Kills-aces-blocks) - JOHNSON, Maggie 17-0-1; GRAY,
Jenny 13-0-4; FRAZIER, Carly 8-0-0; BLOOD, Tara 7-0-3; SALAVA,
Channing 5-0-1; ALBRITTON, Kayla 5-1-5; CLEMENTS, Megan 0-1-0; Totals
55-2-9.0. (Assists) - SALAVA, Channing 43. (Dig leaders) - CLEMENTS,
Megan 27; GRAY, Jenny 18; MELLADO, Ester 11; JOHNSON, Maggie 11;
SALAVA, Channing 10
Chattanooga (8-4) (Kills-aces-blocks) - BARNES, Courtney 12-0-1;
BROCK, Laura 9-0-0; KUHN, Ellie 8-0-4; HARVILLE, Stephanie 6-0-3;
CHASTAIN, Bailee 2-1-1; PARMAN, Heather 2-1-1; BEASLEY, Kirsten 2-1-1;
ERND, Meagan 2-0-0; Totals 43-3-7.0. (Assists) - CHASTAIN, Bailee 27.
(Dig leaders) - PASSMORE, Paula 24; BROCK, Laura 17; CHASTAIN, Bailee
15; HARVILLE, Stephanie 9
Site: Chattanooga, Tenn. (Maclellan Gym)
Date: Sep 23, 2009 Attend: 177 Time: 1:50
Referees: Kieth Weller, Denise Penekofer
