The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball squad kicked off Southern Conference play in thrilling fashion with a 3-2 (18-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-18, 15-9) comeback win over Wofford inside an electric Maclellan Gymnasium on Friday night.
Chattanooga improves to 1-0 in SoCon action and 5-9 overall this season. Wofford drops to 7-7, 0-1 in league play. The Terriers will travel to Samford tomorrow while UTC hosts Furman to conclude the weekend.
Using the home court to their advantage, the Mocs improved to 20-5 in home SoCon matches and 38-10 since 2015.
The win also marks UTC’s first conference opening win since the 2015 season and just the second since 2008.
Wofford came out strong in the early going and claimed the first two sets in convincing fashion, 25-18 and 25-19, to take a 2-0 lead. Chattanooga responded in the third and fourth sets with 25-20 and 25-18 wins to force the match to a deciding fifth set. UTC fed off a raucous home crowd and delivered with a 15-9 victory to earn the 3-2 comeback win.
Chattanooga finished with 51 kills at a .210 hitting percentage while Wofford posted 52 kills at a .211 clip. The home team out-totaled the visitors in digs (65-56), assists (51-44), team blocks (10.0-7.0) and service aces (11-6). UTC has now double-digit aced their opponents for the third time this season.
The outside-hitting duo of Gylian Finch (16) and Ally Ford (13) combined for 29 of the team’s 51 kills and attacked at efficient .278 and .258 percentages, respectively. Of the 29 kills, 16 came over the final two sets to help build momentum down the stretch. Finch recorded her first career double-double by adding 10 digs while Ford notched a new career-high four service aces during the win.
Mikaela Gauthreaux and Dani Szcepanski finished with eight and seven kills while attacking at a combined .314%. The pair each concluded the match with three block assists in addition to Gauthreaux’s one solo block. Emily Plumlee finished with three solo blocks and two block assists to help defend at the net.
Jaquelyn Langhaim dished out 42 assists to direct the offense and completed the double-double with 10 digs. Langhaim added two service aces, three kills and a solo block.
Four different Mocs recorded double-digit digs including Megan Kaufman who paced the team with 13. Bailey Bennett added a career-high 11 while Langhaim and Finch each finished with 10.
Chattanooga hosts Furman (4-8, 0-1 SoCon) tomorrow at 3 p.m. inside Maclellan Gymnasium for its annual ‘Military Appreciation’ match. There will be no live video but live stats are available on GoMocs.com.