SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team continues its historic road streak after rallying from a set down and fighting off a pair of match points to ultimately defeat Wofford in a five-set thriller, 3-2 (25-21, 20-25, 15-25, 25-17, 20-18), on Friday night at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium in Spartanburg, S.C.
Chattanooga has now won five-straight matches, the longest streak since 2015, and improves to 6-3 in the SoCon and an even 12-12 overall. The Mocs have also won three-straight SoCon road matches which is the longest such streak in a season since 2005. Wofford falls to 12-9 overall and 4-5 in conference play.
"We had a ball misplayed by Sophia [Bossong] out of reaction on match point that would have been the game, but her team immediately responded and was not about to let her feel that," said head coach
Julie Torbett after the dramatic match.
"It really fired Natalie [Tyson] up and she really took it to another level. What a resilient team we have, I'm really happy for them."
Chattanooga jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the match after claiming a 25-21 set win behind a blistering .464 attacking percentage from the offense. Wofford quickly erased the deficit and pulled ahead 2-1 after convincing 25-20 and 25-15 decisions in the second and third sets.
The Mocs, who trailed 12-7 at one point, responded with a dominant 18-5 run to finish out the set 25-17 and tie force a deciding fifth set. The do-or-die fifth set was as thrilling as it gets with the two teams fighting off a combined five match points. UTC ultimately earned a 20-18 win following a Wofford attack error and back-to-back kills from
Halle Olson and
Natalie Tyson.
Tyson was an absolute force on the offensive side of the ball finishing the match with 23 kills on 50 swings while committing just four attacking errors to amass a .380 hitting percentage. In the fifth set alone, Tyson recorded eight kills at a .700 clip with an ace and three digs. She also completed another kill-dig, double-double after ending with 11 digs and led the match with four aces.
Olson reached double-digits in kills for the third time in the last four matches following a 10 kill, half of which came in the fifth set, performance while posting the second-most digs in a match this season with 16. It marks her sixth kill-dig, double-double this year.
Aleya Kennedy,
Chloe Bryan, and
Sydney Hall all ended with six kills ahead of
Kate Neill who closely followed with five. Hall solidified herself at the net with a match-high seven blocks, five solo and two assists, to help account for 11.0 total team blocks in the match. The five solo blocks from Hall ties the most in a match for a Moc since 2003.
Sophia Bossong dished out a team-high 32 assists and registered nine digs and a kill while fellow setter
Elaine Redman added 15 assists, four digs and a kill to help direct the offense. The duo each recorded six assists in the deciding fifth set.
Defensively,
Paige Gallentine was stellar yet again with a team-high 18 digs and also chipped in with two assists and a kill. Gallentine, who entered the day 14
th in NCAA DI in total digs, has recorded double-digit digs in all but three matches with season.
Makenzie Jordan also found double digits in the dig category after finishing with 10.
Cassidy Couch posted three aces off the bench and finished with six digs to help lift the Mocs. Couch has a combined eight aces over the last four matches.
UP NEXT
Chattanooga travels to Greenville, S.C., tomorrow to face Furman at 7 p.m. ET. The match will be LIVE on ESPN+. All match coverage links are available on the schedule page.
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