ATHENS, Ga. --- The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team suffered a 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-19) defeat to Santa Clara on the opening day of the 2022 season Friday afternoon in the Classic City Clash hosted in Athens, Georgia.
 
Chattanooga opens the season 0-1 while Santa Clara opens with a 1-0 mark. Today's matchup marked the first meeting between the two schools and also marked the first time UTC opened the season against a team from the Golden State.
 
"I thought we served well and that kept us in each set. We just never got in a rhythm with our offense," said head coach Julie Torbett following her debut at the helm.
 
"We tried a few different systems to compensate for shaky performances from several of our key players. I have no doubt the team will bounce back and learn from our mistakes."
 
Santa Clara finished the match attacking at a .465 clip while limiting the Chattanooga offensive efficiency to a .165 mark. The Broncos held the edge in kills (53-28), digs (45-35) and assists (45-23) while the Mocs led in team blocks (3.0-2.0) and tied in aces with six apiece.
 
Natalie Tyson led the team with seven kills at a .261 attack percentage while Halle Olson added six kills to lead the offensive attach. Olson finished with nine digs while Tyson added six digs to aid the defensive efforts.
 
In addition to their defensive efforts, Paige Gallentine led the squad with 10 digs. At the net, both Kate Neill and Coniah Davis posted 2.0 blocks each while Tyson and Marcelle Baez-Carlo chipped in with 1.0.
 
Sophia Bossong filled the stat sheet with a team-high 12 assists and added in five digs and four kills. Fellow setter Elaine Redman dished out eight assists and finished with a match-high three aces in her UTC debut. Gallentine (2) and Tyson (1) added to the service ace totals.
 
SET ONE | SC 25, UTC 14
Santa Clara jumped out of the gate with four-straight points before Chattanooga answered with five of the next seven to pull within one at 6-5. During the stretch, the Mocs forced three attacking errors from the Broncos while Coniah Davis recorded the first kill of the 2022 season.
 
The two teams continued to trade points over the first half of the opening set with UTC gaining majority of the points from forced Santa Clara errors. The Broncos took a 14-10 lead at the first media timeout before expanding the lead to 20-14 behind a .375 attacking percentage to force the Mocs into calling for a break.
 
Down 18-14, Chattanooga surrendered a 7-0 run to end the opening set allowing Santa Clara to earn a 25-14 decision. The Broncos attacked at a .394 clip while holding the Mocs to a .148 tally during the set.
 
SET TWO | SC 25, UTC 20
Chattanooga grabbed an early 7-5 lead in the second set on the help of consecutive Elaine Redman aces. The Broncos would even things up 11-11 as they continued an efficient attack, hitting to a .533 percentage over those first 22 points.
 
After Santa Clara held a 15-14 lead at the media timeout and later extended it to 18-14, the Mocs fired back with three-straight points to pull within one at 18-17. SC held a 20-19 advantage and would later finish the second set on a 5-1 run to claim a 25-20 victory and a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
SET THREE | SC 25, UTC 19
Santa Clara opened the third set with five-straight points before Chattanooga scored six of the next nine points to trim the deficit to two, 8-6. Sophia Bossong recorded her second kill of the match to bring the Mocs within a point at 11-10.
 
A Halle Olson kill stopped a small Santa Clara momentum run and brought the score to 15-12 in favor of the Broncos at the media timeout. It was a back-and-forth affair as UTC kept it within three throughout a long stretch before Bossong added another timely kill to cut the deficit to one again, 18-17.
 
Much like the first two sets, Santa Clara closed things out on an impressive scoring as the Broncos tallied seven of the final nine points to clinch a 25-19 set win and a 3-0 victory in the match.
 
UP NEXT
Chattanooga (0-1, 0-0 SoCon) rounds up play in the Classic City Clash tomorrow with a pair of matches. The Mocs will face host Georgia at 11 a.m. ET on the SEC Network+ / ESPN+ platform before finishing the day against Troy at 5:30 p.m. ET. Live stats will be available for the match against Troy. All match coverage links are available on the schedule page.

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