Mocs Win In Five Over Citadel

The Chattanooga volleyball team scored a thrilling 3-2 (25-14, 25-16, 22-25, 20-25, 15-10) win over The Citadel on Friday night inside Maclellan Gymnasium.

With the win, the Mocs improve to 12-10 overall and now climb above the .500 mark in the SoCon at 5-4. The Bulldogs fall to 8-17 on the season and 1-8 in the conference.

1st SET | The Mocs raced out to take six of the first seven points and forced a Citadel timeout.

Eight points later, UTC went on a 5-2 run and opened the lead to 11-4, forcing the second timeout of the set from the Bulldogs. Chattanooga went on to score a 25-14 victory to take a 1-0 lead.
 
2nd SET | With the second set tied up 9-9 over the first 18 points, the Mocs used an 8-0 run to push to a 17-9 advantage over The Citadel. That run was key as both teams traded eight points each in the next 16 and earned the Mocs a 25-16 win and extended the match lead to 2-0.
 
"I told the team I don't think we've been playing up to our expectations lately," said coach Travis Filar. "But we got back to playing to our expectations in the first two sets."
 
3rd SET | This set was a dead-heat from the start as the set featured eight different tied points and five lead changes. The set was all-square at 15-15 before a yellow card was handed to The Citadel bench. The citation seemed to fuel the Bulldogs as they took the next six points to open up a 21-15 lead, ultimately capturing the set 25-22 and moving the match to a 2-1 score.
 
4th SET | Another back-and-forth type set as six different tied points and five lead changes occurred in the first 18 points. With the match tied 9-9, The Citadel went on a 7-2 run to extend a lead of 16-11. The Mocs fought back and took an 18-17 lead after a pair of kills. The Bulldogs had every answer and scored eight of the next ten points to capture the set 25-20, and forcing a deciding fifth set.
 
5th SET | The match deciding set was knotted up twice before the half-way split as it was tied 3-3 and 6-6 before an attack error from The Citadel and a service ace from UTC allowed for a Chattanooga 8-6 advantage. The Mocs didn't look back and finished off the Bulldogs by ending the set scoring three-straight points after it was 12-10 and picked up a 15-10 set win and earning the 3-2 match victory.
 
"The Citadel was phenomenal tonight and we respect them in every aspect," added Filar. "I give credit to our team for their response in the fifth set. We finally pulled away after going point-for-point early on.
 
"I'm excited to find a way to win that match. I'm proud of our team to get the win tonight."
 
The Mocs out-hit the Bulldogs 65-48 in kills and .250-.135 in attack percentage. They out-assisted 62-44, out-dug 86-72 and out-blocked the opposition 12.0-7.0 in the five sets.
 
Three different Mocs registered double-digit kills as Miranda Elpers (Louisville, Ky.) led the way with 16 kills and freshman Brianna Anderson(Austin, Texas) set a new career-high mark with 15 kills. Kristy Wieser (Lincoln, Neb.) rounded out the double-digit kill numbers with 12.Eden Murray (Hoschton, Ga.) chipped in with eight kills and Dani Szczepanski (Cincinnati, Ohio) added seven.
 
The duo of Lauren Greenspoon (Houston, Texas) and Madison Bergren (Muncie, Ind.) once again directed the offense as Greenspoon dished out 32 assists, a new five-set season high, and Bergren finished with 18 assists.
 
UTC used a huge team effort on defense with four players in double-digits in digs and five players recording at least 3.0 blocks. Anderson completed her kill-dig double-double as she led the team with 20 digs in addition to her 15 kills. Rachel Petkosh (Merritt Island, Fla.) followed with 19 digs, Greenspoon with 15 and Bergren with 11. At the net, Szczepanski totaled 6.0 blocks as Wieser and Emily Plumlee(Chesapeake, Va.) finished with 4.0 and Murray with 3.0.
 
"We're getting ready for a tough stretch on the road (four-straight road matches). Mercer is coming in playing really well and they'll be ready to fight so it's going to be a competitive match. We're excited for the challenge."
 
The Mocs return to action tomorrow night as they conclude their three-match homestand with a 6 p.m. matchup against the Mercer Bears. Live stats will be available on GoMocs.com.