SPARTANBURG, S.C. --- It is officially tournament time for the Chattanooga volleyball squad, as the No. 7 seeded Mocs have a SoCon Tournament Quarterfinal match waiting for them in Spartanburg with UTC set to square off against No. 2 seed Mercer with a spot in the Semifinals on the line.
The Mocs (18-13, 6-10 SoCon) will have their sights set on making their second consecutive SoCon Tournament Semifinal after making it to the semis in last year's conference tournament. To do so, however, UTC will first have to take down the Bears (16-11, 12-4 SoCon), who have proven a difficult adversary throughout all of conference play.
Friday's match between the Mocs and Bears is slated for a 5 p.m. start time and is the third match scheduled for the day at host Wofford's Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. UTC's match against Mercer, as well as all the SoCon Tournament matches taking place in Spartanburg will have ESPN+ streams and live stats available for fans.
MATCH CENTRAL
Friday, November17 | Quarterfinal vs. #2 Mercer | 5:00 p.m. ET
Saturday, November 18 | Semifinal vs. TBD | 7:30 p.m. ET
Sunday, November 19 | Championship vs. TBD | 4:00 p.m. ET
Coverage Links: Live Stats (MER) | Live Stream (MER)
SERIES HISTORY
Mercer: 20-20
INSIDE THE SERIES
The Mocs and the Bears enter their SoCon Tournament matchup in a dead heat when it comes to their all-time series, as right now the series sits 20-20 following the two matches between the two teams in 2023. Mercer has been able to find some recent success against UTC, having won each of the last four matches between the teams and 11 of the last 13 matchups dating back to 2017. When it comes to neutral site games, the Mocs have been able to hold a 5-2 advantage over the Bears all-time. The last and only time that Chattanooga and Mercer met in the Southern Conference Tournament came in 2016, when #3 seed UTC came away with a 3-1 victory over #6 seed Mercer in the 2016 SoCon Tournament Quarterfinals. Chattanooga would go on to reach the Southern Conference title match that season before falling 3-1 to #4 seed Samford.
THE 2023 SOCON TOURNAMENT
The stage is officially set for the 2023 SoCon Tournament, set to run Nov. 17-19 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This year's quarterfinals matchups include #1 The Citadel vs. #8 ETSU, #2 Mercer vs. #7 Chattanooga, #3 Wofford vs. #6 Western Carolina, and # 4 Samford vs. #5 Furman. ETSU defeated #9 UNCG 3-1 on Tuesday in the tournament play-in match hosted in Johnson City to earn their spot in the quarterfinals against the regular season champions, The Citadel.
PAST SUCCESS IN THE SOCON TOURNAMENT
Overall UTC holds a 28-31 record in the SoCon Tournament in the team's 50 years of history, including hoisting the tournament title a total of four times in program history (1987, 1996, 1997, 1998). The Mocs have reached the championship match of the SoCon Tourney a total of eight times, most recently in 2016. Just a year ago Chattanooga ended up as the #4 seed in the 2022 iteration of the tournament. The Mocs reached the SoCon Semifinals before falling to Furman in five sets. Coming in this year as the tournament's #7 seed, UTC will be looking for success similar to the last time they won a match as the #7 seed in the tournament, 2001. That year, the Mocs strung together massive wins over ETSU and Davidson to earn a spot in the Southern Conference title match. UTC would end up losing that match to Georgia Southern.
MOCS GO 2-FOR-2K
A pair of Mocs came away with major career milestones in the team's final two home matches of the year last weekend. First, libero Paige Gallentine became just the fourth Moc in program history to surpass 2,000 career digs against Mercer. Not long after that moment, outside hitter Morgan Romano joined an elite club herself as she crossed the 2,000 career kill mark that same night.
ONE OF THE NATION'S BEST
Outside hitter Morgan Romano's impressive resume goes beyond her All-American status and UTC team-leading kill total this season, as the Oviedo, Florida, native ranks second in the entire nation on the active career kills leaderboard across all levels of collegiate volleyball. She currently stands at 2,010 career kills, right behind USC's Skylar Fields (2,068) and leading the likes of Arkansas' Jillian Gillen (1,933) and Houston's Abbie Jackson (1,883).
50 SEASONS OF CHATTANOOGA VOLLEYBALL
The 2023 season for the Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team marks a major landmark for the program and the university, as UTC volleyball officially celebrates its 50th season of competition as a university sponsored athletic program. Following the adoption of the Title IX legislation back in 1972, UTC added women's basketball, tennis, and volleyball programs to its roster of athletic teams, bringing on five decades of history for each of the teams.
CAREER MILESTONE WATCH
- Paige Gallentine now sits at 2,027 career digs. Ranking fourth all-time, she now needs just 31 to tie Kylie Hunter (1990-93) at 2,058 to enter the program's top three in career digs.
- Gallentine needs just 14 more digs to tie her highest single-season dig total of 596 from 2022. Four more digs on top of that would make Gallentine the 10th player in program history to record 600+ digs in a single season.
- Gylian Finch has tallied 1,370 career kills, ranking fourth in program history. She now needs 102 kills to move past Leslee Ball (2004-07) for third all-time.
- Finch's 123 career aces rank fourth in program history. The next highest Moc for her to catch is Allie Davenport (2013-16) at 142 in her career. Finch also needs four aces to tie her previous season-best total of 37 total aces in 2019.
- Elaine Redman needs 136 assists to officially enter Chattanooga's Top 10 career assists leaderboard. The junior sits at 1,804 in her time at UTC and 2,861 in her career.
- Redman has tallied the eighth-most assists on UTC's single-season assists leaderboard with 1,116 on the year. She is 17 away from being tied for seventh and 61 away from sixth.
- Morgan Romano ranks tenth on the Mocs' single-season kills leaderboard, having tallied 428 on the year. Two more kills would tie her for the ninth-best season kill total for the Mocs. The next Mocs to catch would be eighth place (443), seventh (452), sixth (464) and fifth (469).
- Gallentine needs three aces for her 100th of her career.
- Grey Breen is one ace away from 50 in her career.
- Sophia Bossong (four away) is closing in on her 100th career appearance.
- Chandler Alter (two away) is nearing her 50th career appearance.
ABOUT MERCER
Following a second-place regular season finish in the SoCon standings, the No. 2 seeded Mercer Bears have been a team on a mission throughout conference play in 2023 and are arguably one of the hottest teams in the league heading into postseason play. Despite starting the year 4-7 in non-conference action, the Bears have found new life in the SoCon slate of their schedule going 12-4. The Bears have won their last four matches heading into the postseason, as well as winning 10 of their last 12. To find success in Spartanburg, the Mocs will need to find a way to neutralize the Mercer duo of Kylee Quigley and Skyler Bumpers. Between Quigley and Bumpers, the pair have won a total of four SoCon Offensive Player of the Week awards this season, all of which have come in the final five weeks of the season. Quigley currently leads the SoCon in aces/set (0.45) while also ranking fourth in the league in kills/set (3.57) this season, while Bumpers currently leads the conference in hitting percentage this year (.371) alongside ranking seventh in blocks (0.90 per set).
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