KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team recorded its highest hitting percentage in a match since Aug. 27, 2016 in route to an impressive 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 27-25) sweep over Belmont on the opening day of the Tennessee Classic in Knoxville on Friday afternoon.
 
Chattanooga starts the season 1-0 while Belmont drops to 0-1 on the opening day of the collegiate volleyball season. It marks the first time the Mocs downed the in-state foe Bruins since Sept. 7, 2010 and pulls the all-time series record to 5-7.
 
UTC used a heavy offensive attack during the sweep, out-numbering Belmont in kills (32-25), hitting percentage (.333-.127) and assists (28-24). Seven different Mocs recorded at least two kills while six notched four or more.
 
Head Coach Travis Filar was pleased with his team's performance on opening day.
 
"Great team win to start the season. I was really pleased with how hard we worked as a group throughout the match. We were super connected and I thought we played really clean volleyball in all phases for most of the match," said Filar.
 
"I loved how we won every long rally, which shows that our training, toughness and preparation is making a difference."
 
Miranda Elpers led the way with a team-high nine kills on a .185 hitting percentage while Mikaela Gauthreaux followed with five kills at a .400 clip. Dani Szczepanski and Emily Plumlee each laid down four kills in the middle at a combined .548 percentage.
 
Making their collegiate debuts, true freshmen Jaquelyn Langhaim and Gylian Finch each recorded four kills while Langhaim led the Mocs with 14 assists. Finch recorded five service aces during the three sets, the most in a match since Sept. 13, 2014. (Allie Davenport, 6)
 
"We will enjoy this one for a bit before shifting our focus as we have two awesome opportunities tomorrow to grow as a group against power-5 opponents in Michigan State and Tennessee," concluded Filar.
 
Up Next
Chattanooga continues play in the Tennessee Classic tomorrow with an 11 a.m. start against No. 22 Michigan State before closing out the weekend at 7:30 p.m. against tournament-host Tennessee on the SEC Network+ and WatchESPN App platforms.
 
Chattanooga 3, Belmont 0
1^st Set | Chattanooga 25, Belmont 19
Chattanooga kicked off the 2018 season in a fury, scoring the match's first four points and eight of the first 11 to take an early 8-3 lead. During that run, freshman Gylian Finch notched three-straight aces to start her collegiate career.
 
Belmont would battle back to pull within three at 10-7, but that would be as close as they could get from that point. UTC opened up the set, 20-12, on the help of a 10-5 run, highlighted by a pair of kills from Miranda Elpers and another ace from Finch.
 
The Mocs would close out the opening set by scoring five of the final 12 points to earn a 25-19 set win and a 1-0 lead in the match. UTC finished the set with an impressive .400 hitting percentage and .550 kill percentage. They limited the Bruins to a .182 hitting percentage and forced four errors.
 
2^nd Set | Chattanooga 25, Belmont 14
After trading the first six points of the set, Belmont went on a small 8-5 run to take an 11-8 advantage over UTC. Chattanooga responded in a huge way, scoring ten-straight points off the serve of Jaquelyn Langhaim to take a commanding 18-11 lead.
 
The Mocs wouldn't let up down the stretch as they captured seven of the final ten points in the set to win 25-14 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Much like the first set, Chattanooga out-attacked Belmont by a wide margin in the hitting percentage column. UTC used a .350 - .115 advantage as three different Mocs recorded at least two kills while six notched at least one dig in the set.
 
3^rd Set | Chattanooga 27, Belmont 25
A back-and-forth affair broke out in the third set that featured six lead changes and 15 ties between the two teams. After trailing 12-11, the Mocs used kills from Langhaim, Maddie Halsey and Dani Szczepanski, in addition to a bad set call on Belmont, to fire off a quick 4-0 run and take a 15-12 lead.
 
Chattanooga would score three of the next four points to cap off a 7-1 run before surrendering a 6-1 Belmont spurt that tied the set at 19-19, forcing a timeout call from the UTC bench.
 
Both teams traded points down the stretch, tying the set on five different occasions. With the score locked up 25-25, the freshmen duo of Langhaim and Finch laid down back-to-back kills to give Chattanooga a 27-25 set win and completed the 3-0 match sweep.
 

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