CHATTANOOGA --- The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team battled league-leading Samford to four sets, ultimately dropping a 3-1 (25-25, 26-28, 27-25, 25-20) decision on Sunday afternoon inside Maclellan Gymnasium.
 
Following the loss, Chattanooga falls to 5-10 overall and 3-10 in league play. Samford improves its winning streak to 11 matches and moves its record to 12-1 overall and in the conference.
 
Chattanooga celebrated the career of the lone senior on the year's squad, Mikaela Gauthreaux following the match. Gauthreaux has appeared in over 60 matches during her career, recording more than 300 kills, 100 digs and 90.0 total blocks.
 
Gauthreaux suffered a season-ending knee injury after a highly successful 2018 campaign and immediately before the 2019 season. After 821 days between matches played, Gauthreaux returned to the court in February at Western Carolina.
 
MATCH BASICS | BOX
SET 1 | SAM 25, UTC 15
SET 2 | UTC 28, SAM 26
SET 3 | SAM 27, UTC 25
SET 4 | SAM 25, UTC 20
 
Samford opened the match with an impressive first set effort, laying down 17 kills on 43 attacks while committing only three errors to total a blistering .326% attack percentage. Chattanooga was limited to just nine kills at a .102% clip.
 
UTC turned the tables in the second set, racing out to a 10-5 lead in the first 15 rallies to force a Samford timeout. The Bulldogs fought their way back and fought off a Chattanooga set point to tie things at 24-24 before both teams traded points down the stretch. Tied 26-26, Kate Neill (Plymouth, Minn.) and Maia Rackel (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) recorded consecutive kills to clinch the set, 28-26, and tie the match at 1-1.
 
Chattanooga continued its momentum in the third set, extending out to a 20-14 lead after the teams were knotted at 9-9. Again, Samford battled its way back and fought off four UTC set points at 24-21, 24-22, 24-23 and 25-24, before rallying for three-straight points to earn a 27-25 set win and 2-1 lead in the match.
 
The Mocs saw another lead slip away in the must-win fourth set after climbing out to a five-point lead at 13-9. The visitors scored 14 of the next 18 points to pull ahead 23-17 before capping off the set, 25-20, and the match 3-1.
 
Rackel (14), Neill (10) and Tamia Hall (Atlanta, Ga.) (10) all reached double-digits in kills to lead the Mocs on offense. Neill and Hall's kill totals were both new career highs in their first season with UTC.
 
Gylian Finch (Mount Morris, Ill.) and Brenna Everingham (Noblesville, Ind.) led the team with 25 and 24 digs, respectively. Finch set a new career high with the 25 dig total while Everingham's 24 was a season high.

UP NEXT
Chattanooga (5-10, 3-10 SoCon) returns to action tomorrow with the season series finale against Samford at 4:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+. Links are available on the schedule page.

MORE ABOUT CHATTANOOGA VOLLEYBALL
Watch "Mission First, Family Always" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8mOmxbzHk4&t=2s
Read "Mission First, Family Always" here: https://gomocs.com/news/2019/9/27/general-chatt-chats-mission-first-family-always.aspx?path=general

FOLLOW CHATTANOOGA VOLLEYBALL
Follow @GoMocsVB on Twitter & @GoMocsVolleyball on Instagram for the most up-to-date information and news regarding Chattanooga volleyball.