CHATTANOOGA --- With tonight's #ThrowbackThursday Facebook Live Watch Party featuring a Chattanooga Mocs volleyball SoCon Tournament victory in 2015, GoMocs.com takes a look back to one of the most memorable, if not the most memorable, season in program history.
 
Despite falling under the 'recent memory' category, the 2015 Chattanooga Mocs Volleyball team can forever be remembered as one of the most successful groups in the 35-year history of the program after finishing with a 26-6 record and a regular season Southern Conference title for the first time since 1998.
 
26 wins? A program record. Just six losses? Another school record. An .813% winning percentage? You guessed it, another program best.
 
But how they got there? That's a storybook tale.
 
"I honestly do not know if there are words that are adequate enough to express just how incredibly special this 2015 team and season was," said then fifth-year head coach Travis Filar.
 
"I also believe that unless you were on that team and experienced firsthand that Fall, you would not believe all of the story lines, wins, and especially the comebacks!"
 
Special Team in the Making
To have such a special season, a team must buy-in to all the little things that produce that winning culture. In Filar's opinion, this was one of the best.
 
"Another special part of 2015 was that each student-athlete understood and embraced their role on this team, and whether they were an all-conference performer, starter, role player, contributor off the bench, or got most of their opportunities to impact the team in practice. Each individual brought their best effort and energy every day, and that is why I will always say this was the best "TEAM" I have ever been around," added Filar. 
 
In what might make it so special for Filar, the 2015 senior class was his first full recruiting class since taking over at Chattanooga in 2011. The class comprised of five incredible student-athletes who excelled not only on the court, but especially off the court.
 
"This journey of our championship season began and ended with the senior class of Julimar Alvarado, Sarah Batterton, Catherine Chason, Lauren Gainer, and Briana Reid. These five student-athletes were my first full recruiting class at Chattanooga, and when I recruited each of them I challenged them to come to Chattanooga to not only help change our culture and program, but to help raise Chattanooga Volleyball back to a championship level," said Filar.
 
"That charge was not just about winning a championship, but more importantly, it was about building our program's culture to having a championship mentality, to help encourage everyone who was a part of the program to become a championship human being through our core values. These five special young women did exactly that, as they were the leaders throughout their careers that ultimately drove us to our unforgettable championship season in 2015."
 
In addition to the senior class, a pair of juniors in Allie Davenport and Kristy Wieser shined as top-level attackers on the court. The duo was named to the All-Southern Conference First Team following the regular season and marked the first time UTC earned multiple selections on the first team since 2000.
 
Libero [Catherine] Chason and then-sophomore setter Lauren Greenspoon earned All-Southern Conference Second Team honors while Davenport and [Briana] Reid rounded out the team's postseason awards with spots on the All-Tournament squad.
 
A Look Into The Season
Ironically, Chattanooga opened with a tough five-set loss at home to Valpo before rattling off four of the next five matches to start the season 4-2. With some building momentum on the horizon, what happened next truly showed what a special year 2015 was going to be.
 
The Mocs won their next 11 matches and captured preseason tournament titles at the Scenic City Showdown and Hokie Invitational. In the midst of the stretch, UTC downed ACC-member Virginia Tech in a 3-2 thriller to earn the program's first "Power 5" win since 2004.
 
The Southern Conference slate followed the plethora of preseason tournament titles and saw Chattanooga earn victories in its first four matches to cap off the winning streak and begin the league schedule 4-0. The Mocs dropped just six sets in total and posted six sweeps during that span.
 
A five-set loss on the road at Furman snapped the 11-match streak before Chattanooga responded with wins in five of its next seven to move its SoCon mark to 9-3 heading into the final four matches. What a final four matches those would be.
 
Unbelievable Final Stretch
UTC picked up a pair of four-set wins on senior weekend inside Maclellan Gym over The Citadel and Furman to set up a scenario in which two more wins to close out the season would clinch the regular season SoCon title. The win over the Paladins allowed for a one-match lead in the standings ahead of the final weekend of play.
 
A weekend trip to ETSU and Western Carolina was all that stood in the way between UTC and its first league title in nearly two decades. In the season's initial matchups, the Mocs secured a sweep over WCU and a 3-1 win over ETSU. Speaking lightly, things would not be as easy this time around.
 
November 13, 2015. Chattanooga at ETSU. A match that can simply be described as; unbelievable. The Bucs raced out to a 2-0 lead in the match and made plans to play spoilers against their rivals. However, UTC would bounce back with victories in the third and fourth sets to push it to a winner-take-all fifth. What happened in that fifth set, became extraordinary.
 
ETSU dominated roughly 99-percent of the set to earn itself ten match points behind a commanding 14-4 lead. A comeback from that deficit? No chance, right? Wrong.
 
With their backs against the wall, Chattanooga stormed all the way back with ten unanswered points to tie the set up before continuing with its momentum to ultimately capture a 21-19 decision and 3-2 win in the match. In total, the Mocs fought off 11 ETSU match points to keep its title hopes alive, which proved to be a definitive moment of the season.
 
"And yes you read that right, down 14-4 in the fifth set on the road in a match we had to win to keep our championship dreams alive. I have been doing this for almost 20 years and have never ever seen or heard anything like that," said Filar.

From the student-athlete perspective, the feelings were mutual.
 
"It's hard to pick one moment or one game from that season, the whole season was one for the record books," said then senior and now staff member Lauren Barr (Gainer). "But I think my favorite moment was when we beat ETSU on the road in five."
 
"We came back from a huge deficit in the fifth set and fought off a couple match points to put us in the running for the SoCon title. We all ran to the locker room and celebrated."
 
While the win felt great, there was still work left to do the next day with a match in Cullowhee, N.C., on tap. One more victory away from accomplishing season, and career-long goals.
 
UTC would have to dig deep for the second consecutive day after falling behind the Catamounts, 2-0, in the match. Victories in sets three and four once against shined a spotlight on a do-or-die fifth set with title implications on the line.
 
Chattanooga attacked at a blistering .389 percentage in the set and eventually broke away from a back-and-forth tilt on the help of offensive outburst from Reid and Davenport. Up 14-11 and facing match point, Reid laid down the SoCon title-clinching kill to break a 17-year long championship drought.
 
The No. 1 seeded Chattanooga Mocs earned wins in the first two rounds of the SoCon Tournament to advance to its first championship match since 2001 before falling to No. 2 Furman in the final.
 
Season Recap and Team Success
It's tough to put into words the overall summary of the 2015 season with so many highs and so many unbelievable story lines taking precedent. But if you ask all involved, it always comes back to one quality trait. The team.
 
"I think the biggest success as a team was how close we were as a unit. We all bought in to our one goal and we worked together on and off the court.
 
"We decided before the season started that we were going to put numbers on the banner that year and we're going to do anything to make that happen. We worked for that title since we got to campus as freshmen and I'll never forget that feeling," added Barr.
 
To recap the season highlights:
- 26 wins tied for the most in program history while the .813% winning percentage was highest season total in program history.
- 6 losses marked the least amount in a season in program history.
- The SoCon Regular Season title was the school's first in volleyball since 1998.
- First SoCon Tournament Championship match appearance since 2001.
- Program record 11-match win streak.
- Win over Virginia Tech earned the program's first "Power 5" win since 2004.
- Peaked at 73^rd and finished 77^th in final national RPI rankings, highest finish in program history.
 
A season that will forever be remembered in the history of Chattanooga Volleyball.

MORE ABOUT CHATTANOOGA VOLLEYBALL
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