- The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team's comeback effort fell short in a 3-1 (25-16, 25-22, 21-25, 25-15) loss to unbeaten SoCon leader Furman on Friday evening in Maclellan Gymnasium.
Chattanooga falls to 12-13 overall and 5-6 in the Southern Conference following the loss. Furman remains perfect in conference action with a 10-0 record while improving their overall record to 16-7 after the win.
After falling in the first two sets of the match, the Mocs forced a fourth set with a 25-21 set win in the third, only the sixth set taken from Furman over their last ten matches.
The rally wouldn't continue as the Paladins clinched the match with a convincing 25-15 set win in the fourth.
Offensively, the Mocs were limited to a .127 hitting percentage for the match and were held to a .032 mark in the match-clinching fourth set. In the third set win, UTC held Furman to a .077 clip, but allowed the Paladins to hit at a .221 percentage for the match.
Furman out-blocked and out-dug Chattanooga 10.0 to 6.0 and 78 to 71, respectively. From the service line, UTC totaled three aces but committed six errors in return while the Paladins evened their numbers out at five aces to five errors.
Dani Szczepanski led the way for the Mocs on offense by collecting 12 kills on an efficient .318 hitting percentage. She finished the final two sets with a combined seven kills on a perfect 1.000 percentage. Ally Ford chipped in with 12 kills at a .136 clip while Emily Plumlee added seven kills at .375. Lauren Greenspoon led the team with 22 assists while Madison Bergren totaled 21 to follow.
Megan Kaufman led the match with 27 digs while Miranda Elpers followed behind with 15. Five different Mocs recorded a block as Mikaela Gauthreaux and Dani Szczepanski led the team with 3.0 total blocks each.
Chattanooga returns to the court tomorrow, Saturday (10/28), for a 3 p.m. 'Senior Day' match against The Citadel. Admission is FREE and the match will also be streamed LIVE on GoMocs.com.