CULLOWHEE, N.C. -- The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team dropped its second match in as many nights as they fell 3-1 (25-12, 22-25, 20-25, 18-25) to Western Carolina in Cullowhee, N.C., on Saturday evening.
The loss drops the Mocs to 15-12 overall and 8-6 in the Southern Conference. Western Carolina improves to 10-16 and 5-8 in the league.
1st SET | The opening set was dominated by the Mocs from start to finish. Chattanooga opened up on a 7-2 run and extended the lead to as many as seven, 16-9, before capturing the set on a 9-3 advantage, 25-12.
2nd SET | In the second set, the Catamounts jumped out to a 9-1 lead forcing UTC to call a timeout. The Mocs cut into the lead at 14-11, but couldn't find enough momentum to overtake WCU's scoring attack. With the set at 24-18, UTC rattled off four-straight points before a Catamount kill ended the set 25-22 and tied the match 1-1.
3rd SET | The third set was more back-and-forth than the previous two to open up as the set was knotted up 7-7 in the first 14 points. WCU scored eight of the next 12 to extend a 15-11 lead over UTC. The Mocs made up ground to only trail 22-20, but wasn't enough as the Catamounts took the last three points for a 25-20 win and 2-1 match lead.
4th SET | Similar to the third set, the first 14 points were traded 7-7 before the Mocs took the next two to earn a 9-7 lead. The Catamounts answered with nine of the next 11 points to open up a 16-11 lead. UTC got within four at 21-17, but WCU closed out the set with a 25-18 win and the match 3-1.
Chattanooga out-hit Western Carolina in efficiency .193-.164, but the Catamounts totaled more kills 54-49. The Mocs also out-dug WCU 68-66 and out-blocked the opposition 10.0-8.0.
Kristy Wieser led the offensive attack for UTC with 11 kills including her 1,000
th career collegiate kill. She registered 122 kills as a freshman at Nebraska-Omaha in 2013 before transferring to Chattanooga.
Eden Murray totaled a new career-high with ten kills at an extremely efficient .450%. A freshman duo of
Dani Szczepanski and
Brianna Anderson each finished with eight kills as Szczepanski hit at a .412 clip. Juniors
Lauren Greenspoon and
Madison Bergren each dished out 20 assists while directing the offense.
Defensively, four different Mocs registered double-digit digs as
Rachel Petkosh led the way with 18 and Bergren completed the assist-dig double-double collecting 14 digs to go along with her 20 assists.
Miranda Elpers added 13 digs while Anderson chipped in with 12.
Emily Plumlee led the blocking battle with a match-high 7.0 total blocks notching the second-most for her this season.
Chattanooga returns home next weekend to conclude the regular season with a Friday match against Furman and a Saturday match against UNCG with both starting at 6 p.m. Friday's match will be Bone Marrow Donation Awareness night and Saturday will be Senior night. More information will come in the days leading up to the matches on GoMocs.com.
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