GREENVILLE, S.C. (Oct. 28) -- The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team earned its second sweep in as many matches as they defeated the Furman Paladins 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-23) on Friday evening in Greenville, S.C.
The win marked the first time Chattanooga has won at Furman since Nov. 6, 1999, a 17-year and 12-match losing streak. The Mocs improve to 14-10 overall and are now 7-4 in Southern Conference play. The loss dropped Furman to 9-14 and 5-6 in conference action.
"This was a great team win, everyone contributed and from the floor to the bench, we had an urgency to compete with great energy, effort and mentality," said coach
Travis Filar after the match.
1st SET | The set started out with both teams trading the initial eight points of the match, locking up at 4-4. The Mocs went on a quick 6-0 run to open up a 10-4 lead over the Paladins. Furman took the next three points before Chattanooga took six of the next eight points to take a 16-9 lead. UTC wouldn't look back as they mounted runs of 3-0 and 4-0 over the home stretch to earn a 25-16 set win and took a 1-0 lead in the match.
2nd SET | Furman jumped out to a 4-1 lead before Chattanooga knotted the set up at 4-4 and 6-6 through the sets first twelve points. The set continued its even ways as both teams put up four of the next eight points to bring the set to a 10-10 lock. The Mocs went on a 5-2 run to open up a 15-12 lead before taking three of the next five, forcing a Furman timeout with the score 18-14. Furman brought the match to 19-17 before a 6-2 run by Chattanooga finished the set, 25-19, and went into the break leading 2-0.
3rd SET | For the third-straight set, the first eight points were split evenly at 4-4. From that point, Chattanooga went on an 8-2 run, opening up a 12-6 lead over Furman. The Paladins roared back taking seven of the next eight points, tying the set up 13-13. They continued their hot play by taking a 19-17 lead late in the set and forcing UTC into a calling a timeout. Out of the timeout, the Mocs responded by scoring four of the next five and took a 21-20 lead as the Paladins were forced into a timeout of their own. Chattanooga went on to take four of the next seven to capture a 25-23 set win, and a 3-0 sweep of the Paladins.
"We were extremely focused from start to finish," added Filar.
"We took big steps forward tonight against a great program. We continue to drive to get better every time out and I couldn't be prouder of this group tonight."
The Mocs used a balanced attack of offense and defense to earn the sweep. Chattanooga hit at a .245 percentage while limiting Furman to a low .124 percentage, their second lowest of conference play and lowest since Oct. 5. UTC totaled one more kill than the Paladins 39-38 but committed half the amount of errors, 24-12. Chattanooga out-blocked the opposition 7.0-5.0 marking their fifth-straight match winning the blocking battle. UTC also edged Furman in service aces 6-2.
Six different Mocs recorded at least four kills as
Dani Szczepanski (Cincinnati, Ohio) and
Kristy Wieser (Lincoln, Neb.) led the way with eight kills each as Szczepanski hit at a .412 percentage and Wieser at .294.
Emily Plumlee (Chesapeake, Va.) followed with seven kills (.545) and
Miranda Elpers (Louisville, Ky.) followed behind with six of her own while adding three service aces.
Brianna Anderson (Austin, Texas) added five kills while
Eden Murray (Hoschton, Ga.) rounded out the attack with four.
Lauren Greenspoon (Houston, Texas) recorded at-least 15 assists for the tenth-straight match as she led the team with 21 assists and
Madison Bergren (Muncie, Ind.) trailed behind with a second-best 13 assists.
Defensively,
Rachel Petkosh (Merritt Island, Fla.) led the Mocs with 13 digs while chipping in with two service aces. Six different Mocs recorded at least 1.0 total blocks, but Plumlee set the precedent with a match-high 5.0 total blocks. She has now recorded a block in all but two matches this season.
Chattanooga Mocs volleyball will return to action tomorrow by traveling to Charleston, S.C., for a 6 p.m. match against The Citadel. Live VIDEO and STATS will be available and can be found under the schedules tab on GoMocs.com.
Â
