Inside a loud, boisterous Maclellan Gymnasium, the Chattanooga Mocs (8-12, 4-3 SoCon) volleyball team fought off five Samford (10-11, 5-2) match points and battled back to earn a 3-2 (19-25, 25-20, 16-25, 26-24, 18-16) win over the league leaders to secure its fourth Southern Conference win of the season.
 
Chattanooga improves to 8-12 overall and 4-3 in SoCon play to pull ahead for sole possession of third place in the current standings. Samford suffers just its second loss in conference action, falling to 5-2 and 10-11 overall, and drops to second place.
 
Behind in the match 2-1, the Mocs trailed the Bulldogs 24-21 in the fourth set before rallying for five-straight points for a 26-24 set win, forcing a deciding fifth set. UTC fought off a pair of Samford match points (14-13 & 16-15) in the fifth before capturing an 18-16 victory on an Emily Plumlee kill.
 
Chattanooga is now 3-0 in five-set matches this season. Full match recap, stats, and more are below.
 
After Samford claimed the opening set 25-19, Chattanooga captured a 25-20 win in the second to tie things up 1-1 at the break. The visitors won convincingly in the third set, 25-16, to take a 2-1 lead in the match before the home team sparked a rally.
 
A 5-0 run after trailing 24-21 in the fourth turned the momentum of the match in favor of UTC and forced a deciding fifth set. Chattanooga fended off a pair of Samford match points and closed things out 18-16 to earn the 3-2 win.
 
Chattanooga finished the match with a .222 hitting percentage and 60 kills in comparison to Samford who totaled a .232 percentage and 68 kills. In the three set wins for the Mocs, they totaled 43 kills and combined to attack at an impressive .309 clip including a .438 mark in the second. UTC totaled 9.0 team blocks, the second most this season.
 
Gylian Finch laid down a team-high 14 kills at .173 and completed the double-double with 13 digs. Dani Szczepanski followed with 12 kills at a .385 percentage. Szczepanski racked up nine of the kills over the final two sets including six in the fourth set and combined to attack at a .533 percentage during that span.
 
Emily Plumlee posted eight kills and a team-high five blocks while registering the match's final point on a kill up the middle. Mikaela Gauthreaux laid down seven kills at .312 and added a pair of block assists and four digs. Ally Ford finished with nine kills and six digs for the winners while Brianna Anderson came off the bench and chipped in with four kills over the final two sets.
 
Jaquelyn Langhaim dished out 54 assists, a new career-high, and posted three kills and seven digs to show off her versatility. Langhaim dropped a clutch kill in the back corner to tie the fifth set up at 14-14 before dishing out the final assist on Plumlee's kill six points later.
 
Defensively, Megan Kaufman extended numerous lone rallies and paced the team with 22 digs. Miranda Elpers followed suit with 16 digs, second-most for her this season, while also adding three kills in the win.
 
Chattanooga travels to Western Carolina (9-8, 3-3 SoCon) on Saturday for a key SoCon matchup with first serve slated for Noon ET. Live stats are available on GoMocs.com.