Senior middle blocker Courtney Barnes (Franklin, Tenn.) and freshman outside hitter Jennifer Kuroski (Acworth, Ga.) paced the offense with 10 kills each, while sophomore right side Christina Teter (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) added a career-high seven.

Distributing the ball to the hitters was the duo of senior Bailee Chastain (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and freshman Tess Kosycarz (Temecula, Calif.) as they totaled 41, while Kosycarz set a season-high with 21.

Defensively, the Lady Mocs recorded nine total blocks, a season-high, with junior middle blocker Ellie Kuhn (San Antonio, Texas) and Teter each registering five and Barnes totaling four. Kuhn and Barnes each notched a block solo.

Sophomore Paula Passmore (Merritt Island, Fla.) led the team with 15 digs during the contest, but snapped her streak of consecutive matches as the dig leader. As a team, Chattanooga totaled 69 digs as all 13 players that appeared recorded at least two and career-highs were set by Teter (5) and Kosycarz (9).

The match went back and forth as the teams combined for 22 ties and 11 lead changes with the most occurring in the third set with nine and four, respectively. North Florida (1-6) posted 11 more kills than Chattanooga (1-7), which proved to be the difference even though the Ospreys committed 18 more mistakes.

During the first set, North Florida started quickly in its first home match in taking a 10-5 lead.  The Lady Mocs fought back to within two at 19-17. Then, an ace by Passmore provided Chattanooga with its first lead of the set, 23-22, but the Ospreys responded with a kill to tie it. North Florida closed out the set with a 26-24 victory. The Ospreys connected for 18 kills during the set, but the Lady Mocs only totaled 11, while hitting .286, and were unable to take advantage of 11 mistakes by the Ospreys.

In the second set, the Ospreys opened up a big lead at 12-7, but the Lady Mocs tied it at 13-all thanks to four mistakes by their opponents. The teams traded points until a service ace gave the Ospreys a 17-14 advantage. The Lady Mocs cut the lead to one, 19-18, but North Florida would go on to take the set, 25-20, and a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.

Coming out of intermission, the Lady Mocs came out firing and took a 3-1 lead on a Teter kill, but the Ospreys knotted the score at five-all. The teams traded points with neither leading by more than one, until a kill by Kursoki and two aces by Kosycarz gave UTC a 17-14 advantage. A kill by Teter capped a Chattanooga run, where it scored on seven-of-eight rallies, 21-15. The Lady Mocs ended the third set with a bang scoring four-straight points, 25-17, highlighted by kills from Parman and Teter and a block assist by Barnes and Teter.

Starting the fourth set, Chattanooga took a 13-8 advantage following kills by Barnes, Kuhn and Kuroski.  North Florida responded with three-straight points of its own causing the Lady Mocs to call time and came as close as 15-13.

Then, Chattanooga continued to build its lead on a kill by Kosycarz, 20-15. Two kills by Kuroski and Teter helped the Lady Mocs finish the set at 25-21 and force a decisive fifth set. Chattanooga played its best in the entire match posting 15 kills and forcing eight mistakes by UNF.

The fifth set started as the teams traded the first six rallies before North Florida took a 5-3 lead. The Ospreys extended its lead to 9-5 as Chattanooga called time to regroup. Consecutive kills by Kuhn brought the Lady Mocs to within one, 10-9, but that was as close as UTC would get with North Florida taking the match, 15-10.

Chattanooga concludes the UNF Invitational on Saturday with matches against Troy at 9 a.m. and Charleston Southern at 5 p.m.

The Lady Mocs come home to Maclellan Gym for the Country Inns & Suites Invitational on Sept. 17-19. Chattanooga begins the two-day event against Belmont on Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m., while finishing up with a doubleheader against UCF and James Madison the following day starting at 11:30 a.m.