BLACKSBURG, Va. --- Chattanooga volleyball wrapped up its time at the Virginia Tech Classic by splitting the day's matches, earning a sweep victory over Rider before eventually falling to tournament host Virginia Tech later that evening, 3-1.
The Mocs put on a clinic against the Broncs in their first match of the day, cruising past Rider behind a dominant offensive outing for UTC. Later on that night, the Mocs kept their momentum going into an early first set win against the Hokies, but Virginia Tech ultimately prevailed to send Chattanooga home with a 1-1 record on the day.
The Mocs were able to put together a dominant start to their afternoon in Blacksburg in the team's first match of the day as UTC squared off with Rider at 'high noon'. UTC made an early statement on the Broncs with a convincing 25-14 win in set one, and followed that up by taking set two 25-21 to put the Mocs one frame away from a speedy W.
In the third frame, Rider looked as though it was poised to fend off the Chattanooga sweep, building up a lead all the way to 23-20. Even with a pair of set points eventually in their pockets, the Broncs could do little against a UTC attack that leaned heavily on the trio of Sydney Jackwin (11 kills), Chard'e Vanzandt (11 kills) and Marcelle Baez-Carlo (nine kills).
Ultimately ended the match on a 7-2 scoring run, the Mocs would come out victorious with a 27-25 set victory, sealing the 3-0 sweep in favor of Chattanooga.
While there were many admirable performances for the Mocs in the match, none were more impressive than senior Marcelle Baez-Carlo, who finished her day tied for the program record for single match hitting percentage having swung .750 with nine kills on 12 attempts. She now sits tied with the likes of Kate Neill (Oct. 15, 2021) and Vanessa Pritchett (Nov. 7, 1989) as the only Mocs players to swing .750 on at least 12 attacks.
Baez-Carlo added a team-high six blocks to her stat sheet. Elaine Redman also proved pivotal for the Mocs on the defensive side of the ball, notching four blocks of her own alongside nine digs. The Chattanooga native came up just shy of yet another double-double performance on the season, having logged 34 assists on the offensive side of things.
Chandler Alter would finish with a team-high 10 digs in the match, marking her first time leading the team in digs in a match this season. This match also ultimately snapped what was a 38-match streak in which Paige Gallentine finished with 10+ digs dating back to last season. Gallentine ended her match against Rider with nine digs.
Heading into match two against the Hokies, the Mocs carried their momentum right into their night cap. UTC was scorching the ball past the VT defense, jumping out to a red-hot 14-7 start to the night. With Vanzandt once again leading the way, the Mocs dominated the Hokies over the course of the first frame, going on to claim a 25-19 set win over the Power 4 foe.
The first set unfortunately served as a wake up call to the Virginia Tech team, who turned to Belle Patrick to set the tone for the remainder of the match. The Hokies responded well to the hot UTC start in the second, going on to capture the frame 25-15 to split the match at 1-1.
In a pivotal third set, neither team was able to truly gain a large advantage on the other with the largest lead of the entire set only growing to as many as four points. Despite the heavyweight bout going back and forth, Virginia Tech came away with a narrow 25-22 set win, gaining a 2-1 upper hand on the Mocs.
The Hokies went on to close out the match with a dominant showing in set four, cruising to a 25-11 victory. As the dust settled in Blacksburgs and despite UTC's best efforts, it was Virginia Tech that ended the night victorious with a 3-1 victory over the Mocs.
The duo of Chard'e Vanzandt Marcelle Baez-Carlo once again served as UTC's one-two punch in the match against the Hokies, with Vanzandt leading the team with 10 kills along with recording a career-high seven digs on the night while Baez-Carlo closed her day out with a six-kill, four-block outing.
Libero Paige Gallentine returned to her double-digit digging ways, leading the team with 11 digs. She also finished as the team leader in service aces with three on the night. Elaine Redman rounded out UTC's top performers of the evening with a 31-assist, eight-dig and three-block statline.
VIRGINIA TECH CLASSIC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Sarah Malinowki, Virginia Tech (MVP)
Jasmine Robinson, Virginia Tech
Marcelle Baez-Carlo, Chattanooga
Chard'e Vanzandt, Chattanooga
Carly McAleavey, Rider
UP NEXT
The team will now ready itself for its Southern Conference opener, set to take place a week from today in Spartanburg, South Carolina. UTC is slated to take on Wofford at 6 p.m. ET on September 26, before returning to the Scenic City later that same weekend for the Mocs' first home SoCon match of the year with UTC hosting Samford on Sunday, September 29 at 2 p.m. ET. The weekend kicks off what will be a 16-match Southern Conference schedule for the Mocs, along with having two additional non-conference matches sprinkled into the month of October against Alabama A&M (October 8) and at Austin Peay (October 29).
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