The No. 7 seeded Chattanooga Mocs (10-19, 6-10 SoCon) volleyball team is prepared to travel to Greensboro, N.C., for this year's edition of the Southern Conference Tournament held on the campus of UNCG from Nov. 16-18 inside Fleming Gymnasium.
The Mocs are coming off a 3-1 win over Western Carolina on Senior Night. The win earned the team the No. 7 seed for the weekend and any different result, UTC would have slid into the 8/9 play-in game and would have an extra match in its way to an NCAA Tournament berth.
"At this point in the season as a coach, all you are asking for is a healthy team and one that is playing consistent, disciplined, controlling the first contact, and staying focused on being solid on our side and in our game," said head coach Travis Filar.
Chattanooga will face No.
2 Samford on Friday at 5 p.m. in the opening round of tournament play. The two teams split matches during the regular season with each team winning on their respective home court. The match will be streamed LIVE on the Southern Conference Digital Network and the link can be found above or under the volleyball schedule tab.
"I think we are doing all of those things at a high level going into the tournament, and I also feel like we are very prepared in that we know our opponent well," added Filar.
Dani Szczepanski was named to the All-Southern Conference Second Team after finishing third in the conference with a .336 hitting percentage for the season. She ranked second on the team with 228 kills and third with 24 service aces.
The champion of the three-day weekend will earn an automatic berth into this year's NCAA Tournament. UTC is looking to end a 20-year drought with their last appearance coming in 1998.
Chattanooga faces No. 2 Samford in the opening round. The Mocs claimed an incredible 3-2 win over the Bulldogs in the first matchup of the season in Maclellan Gymnasium on Oct. 10 in which it fought off a combined five match points in the fourth and fifth sets to earn the victory. Samford claimed a 3-0 sweep over UTC last Wednesday (11/7) in Birmingham to even the the regular season series.