BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Chattanooga Mocs (9-19, 5-10 SoCon) volleyball team dropped a tough 3-0 (25-21, 25-12, 29-27) contest on the road in Birmingham on the campus of the Samford Bulldogs (15-14, 10-5 SoCon) on Wednesday evening inside the Pete Hanna Center.
 
With the loss, Chattanooga falls to 9-19 overall and 5-10 in league play. Samford keeps its second place slot locked up in the conference standings after improving to 15-14, 10-5.
 
The Mocs will have to sweep Western Carolina in its final regular season match on Friday night and get some help across the league to avoid the No. 8/No. 9 opening round matchup next weekend at the SoCon Tournament.
 
MATCH RECAP
Samford 3, Chattanooga 0
Samford opened up Wednesday's match with a close 25-21 win in the opening set before capturing a dominant win in the second, 25-12. In the first meeting this season, Chattanooga fought off five match points to earn a win. On this night, Samford decided to fend off set points with four to finish off the 3-0 match win with a marathon 29-27 set win in the third.
 
UTC attacked with efficient numbers, finishing the match with 39 kills at a .198 attacking percentage opposed to Samford's 41 kills and .260 clip. Chattanooga out-blocked the Bulldogs by a 7.0 to 5.0 margin, but trailed in the digs category 48-43.
 
Mikaela Gauthreaux paced the offense with a team-high 11 kills and .588 hitting percentage. Gylian Finch followed with nine kills and Ally Ford with seven. Dani Szczepanski added four kills to help the offensive attack.
 
Jaquelyn Langhaim and Maddie Halsey directed the offense with 19 and 12 assists, respectively. Langhaim totaled seven digs, two aces and a block assist to once against fill the stat sheet on both sides of the ball.
 
Brenna Everingham led the team with 12 digs while Megan Kaufman and Miranda Elpers followed with six and five digs. Emily Plumlee posted a match-high five block assists and has now collected 13 block assists in the last 11 sets.
 
UP NEXT
Chattanooga hosts Western Carolina on Friday night at 5 p.m. inside Maclellan Gymnasium for Senior Night. Live stats are available on GoMocs.com. UTC women's basketball takes on No. 5 Louisville, also on Friday, at 7 p.m. inside McKenzie Arena. For tickets & available special promotions, please call the box office at (423) 266-MOCS.

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