BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team dropped another tough five-set match, 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 25-15, 16-25, 15-11), to the hands of Samford on Saturday evening inside the Pete Hanna Center.
 
The loss drops the Mocs to 13-15 overall and 6-8 in the Southern Conference. Samford improves to. UTC now holds a 1-7 record in five set matches this season, 1-6 in SoCon matches. 
 
Miranda Elpers led the Chattanooga offense with 13 kills at a .225 hitting percentage while Mikaela Gauthreaux followed with nine kills. Dani Szczepanski and Emily Plumlee both finished with eight kills at a combined .281 percentage. Eden Murray chipped in with seven kills at .308.
 
Madison Bergren dished out a team-high 32 assists and surpassed 1,000 career assists while at UTC after transferring from UT-Martin in 2015. Lauren Greenspoon added 14 assists of her own.
 
Elpers completed a double-double with 15 digs to go along with her 13 kills. Megan Kaufman tied Elpers with a team-high 15 digs. Bailey Clemons added nine digs in the defeat.
 
Chattanooga hits the court again on Wednesday for their final road match of the season, a 6 p.m. first serve at ETSU. The match will be streamed LIVE on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.

Samford 3, Chattanooga 2
1^st Set | SAM 25, UTC 18
Samford grabbed the lead on the first point and didn't allow a tie or lead change for the entire set. The Bulldogs led 9-7 and then went on an 8-2 run to build up a 17-9 advantage. Samford didn't let up and exchanged points down the stretch for a 25-18 set win and a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
2^nd Set | UTC 25, SAM 23
After both teams played to a 6-6 tie early on, the Mocs scored four of the next five points to build a three-point lead at 10-7. UTC would expand on that lead to 17-12 before Samford roared back to cut the set to two points at 20-18. The Bulldogs would tie things up 22-22 before a service error and a pair of Eden Murray kills gave the Mocs a 25-23 set win and tied the match up 1-1 at the break.
 
3^rd Set | SAM 25, UTC 15
Samford and Chattanooga traded the first eight points of the set before the Bulldogs gained a slight advantage at 10-7. The Mocs would cut it to one at 12-11, but Samford responded with five of the next eight points to extend out to a 17-14 lead. They would close out the set on an 8-1 run from that point, earning a 25-15 set win and giving them a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
4^th Set | UTC 25, SAM 16
Chattanooga came out strong in the fourth set by building a 10-4 lead before extending the six-point advantage into nine points at 19-10. The Mocs would close out the set on the same nine point pace, 25-16, and force a deciding fifth set for a consecutive night.
 
5^th Set | SAM 15, UTC 11
The winner-take-all fifth set hasn't been kind to the Mocs this season and tonight was no different. Samford jumped out to an 8-3 lead at the split before keeping pace with a 12-8 edge. Chattanooga would chip away and cut it to three at 14-11 but it wasn't enough as Samford laid down the final kill, 15-11.