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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Junior Taylor Baird had a match-high 18 kills to lead the Wofford College volleyball team to its fourth Southern Conference win in five matches, 3-1 (25-22, 14-25, 25-20, 25-23), Saturday afternoon from Benjamin Johnson Arena.
 
Wofford (9-13, 4-4 SoCon) stepped up when it mattered most, closing out sets down the stretch to jump Davidson (12-10, 3-5 SoCon) in the league standings. The Terriers scored the final three points of a first set tied at 22, the final three points of a third set it led 22-20 and finished out the match by breaking a 23-all tie with the afternoon's final two points.
 
"We followed our game plan extremely well, especially on defense with our blocking and digging scheme." Wofford head coach Ron Sweet said. "This was a great win for us in terms of where we stand in the conference. I feel we're at the point where the next match is always going to be the biggest match of the season, and that is where I want to be."
 
For the match, Wofford had 60 kills to Davidson's 49, but the Wildcats had a better attack percentage of .254 (49-16-130) to Wofford's .193 (60-28-166). Davidson also had 16 blocks to Wofford's six, but could not stop the Terriers late in sets. Wofford went for five aces, outdueling Davidson by three.
 
Baird led the Terrier attack with her 18 kills and a .310 attack percentage (18-5-42). The reigning SoCon Offensive Player of the Week saved her best performance for the last set, where she had five kills and no errors on nine swings, also adding a block. On the afternoon, Baird had four blocks, two aces and five digs.
 
"Hitting .310 when everybody in the gym knows she is getting the ball was impressive," Sweet said. "As a coach, I'm always going to think she could have played better, but she was still very good."

Seniors Amanda Liguori and Bekah Dorsey each posted a double-double. Liguori had 15 kills and 11 digs, while Dorsey tallied 48 assists and 17 digs. Dorsey's double-double marked her ninth of the season and Liguori's was her eighth.
 
Senior Wendy Burnett had a big afternoon, putting down 14 kills on 31 attempts and posting two blocks, including a block solo. Freshman Ellie Tallman had eight kills, seven digs and a block, while sophomore Liz Buterbaugh had five kills and four blocks.
 
"I was really proud of Ellie Tallman," Sweet said. "Stats may not show it, but she did exactly what we needed her to do today. Davidson has a great right-side hitter and we put Ellie in there to make it hard on her."
 
For Davidson, Caroline Brown had a team-high 13 kills and added 15 digs for a double-double, coming up two blocks shy of a triple-double with eight. Hannah Rau added 12 kills and five blocks and Emily Franklin went for eight kills and five blocks.
 
Baird and Burnett paired up to lead the Terriers to a first-set victory. The duo each tallied six kills and a block, while Baird added two crucial aces. The opener saw the most ties and lead changes of any set with nine ties and four lead changes.
 
The Terriers established the first three-point cushion of the first set at 14-11 on a kill from Burnett, but seven of the next nine points were taken by the Wildcats for an 18-16 Davidson advantage. Wofford came back once again and got the score level at 20 and took the lead for good with the next point on a Brown attack error which led to a Davidson timeout. Burnett got the Terriers back up by two with a kill, but Davidson responded to tie the set at 22 on consecutive blocks. Tallman stepped up and slammed down a bad dig by Davidson to regain the lead and an attack error by Taylor Pisel gave Wofford set point. Again, the Wildcats called timeout, but Wofford took the next point and the set on Burnett's sixth kill of the opener.
 
The second was all Davidson, responding with a .353 attack percentage, which included 14 kills and just two errors on 34 swings. The Terriers had their worst attacking set of the match at .065 (11-8-46), making way for an easy nine-point set victory for the Wildcats and bringing the match score to 1-1 at the intermission.
 
Burnett hit .875 with seven kills and no errors on eight swings in set three to boost the Terriers back ahead in the match. Wofford took its first lead of the set at 7-6 and never gave it back, despite the Wildcats tying the score down the stretch. The final tie came at 19-19 and Wofford took the next three points with two Davidson attack errors and a kill from Baird. Davidson got a kill from Franklin to get back within two, but the Terriers put down the final three points with a kill from Liguori and the set winner from Burnett.
 
The fourth set was all Wofford early on as it appeared the Terriers would cruise to a victory, but Davidson fought all the way back to tie the set after being down by as many as eight. The eight-point lead came at 15-7 with the help of a good service run from Tallman, which included two aces for seven consecutive Terrier points. Wofford got stuck at 16-8 as Davidson scored the next four points and chipped away at the lead until leveling the fourth set 20-20. The lead was never given away as the next six points were traded to make the score 23-all, before Baird put the finishing touches on her afternoon with the final two kills to get the Terriers to .500 in Southern Conference play.
 
The Wofford volleyball team hits the road for two SoCon matches next weekend, competing against UNCG on Friday and Elon on Saturday.
 
Terrier Notes
- Taylor Baird had a match-high 18 kills. It is the 17th time this season Baird has gone for double-figure kills.
- Bekah Dorsey recorded her ninth double-double of the season and 39th of her career.
- Amanda Liguori posted her eighth double-double of the season and 29th of her career.
- The Terriers improved to .500 in Southern Conference play (4-4).
- Wofford improved to 7-30 lifetime against Davidson.