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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Wofford volleyball team played its regular-season finale Saturday night and took Samford to five sets on the Bulldogs' home court, but fell in a thriller, 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-13).
 
Wofford won the second and third sets to grab a 2-1 lead in the match. The fourth saw Samford (21-10, 12-4 SoCon) take a 20-19 advantage and close the set with five of the last six points. In the fifth, Wofford led 6-3 and 8-6 at the changeover. The Terriers carried their two-point cushion for a 10-8 lead before the Bulldogs rattled off three straight points to go ahead 11-10. The battle then saw ties at 11, 12 and 13 until a kill by Gabbi Greenwald gave Samford its first match point. The Bulldogs converted, winning the match as Wendy Burnett's cross-court attack landed wide.
 
Wofford finishes the regular season with a 13-18 overall record and a 7-9 mark in Southern Conference play. The Terriers earn the No. 7 seed for the Southern Conference Tournament and will face No. 2 seed Furman (16-11, 12-4 SoCon) next Friday in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. The tournament is being hosted by Furman, Nov. 22-24, inside Timmons Arena.
 
"This team is very excited to be in the SoCon Tournament," said first-year head coach Ron Sweet, who will lead the Terriers to the postseason for the first time since 2006. "These girls are playing the best they have all season and I'm proud of them. They really deserve this."
 
For the match, Wofford was led by junior Taylor Baird who had a team-high 19 kills. Senior Wendy Burnett had 12 kills and a team-high six total blocks. As a team, the Terriers tied their season-high with 11 blocks in the match.
 
"I thought our blocking was so fetch tonight," Sweet said. "Both of our middles played fantastic. There were runs in the match where Samford could not get the ball past them. We did a great job of finding who the hitter was and shutting her down."
 
Senior setter Bekah Dorsey had a team-high 41 assists, adding 12 digs and four blocks. During the first set, she earned the 1000th dig of her collegiate career to join Joanna Suddath (2006-09) as the two Terriers to ever record both 3,000 career assists and 1,000 digs.
 
The opening set of Saturday night's regular-season finale belonged to the Bulldogs, outhitting Wofford .235 to .000. Michaela Reesor led the way with four of her match-high 20 kills on the night, while Erin Bognar and Greenwald each contributed with three. Samford took eight of the first nine points and led by 10 at 16-6 off a Bognar kill. The Terriers fought and scored five straight to cut the lead in half, but the deficit was too much to overcome as the Bulldogs took the first by eight.
 
Wofford responded in the second. The set saw 14 ties and seven lead changes, while Baird was unstoppable with seven kills and no errors on 11 attempts. The back-and-forth set saw its final tie at 19 before an attack error by Reesor and a Baird kill forced Samford to use a timeout down two. Freshman Ellie Tallman put down a kill to make the score 24-22 and award Wofford two chances at the set, and the Terriers converted as Samford's Emily Meitz missed on an attack to level the match at a set apiece.
 
In the third, Samford had 13 kills to Wofford's 10, but the Terrier block came alive. Wofford earned four in the set to force 10 Bulldog attack errors, outhitting Samford .184 to .073. With the score tied at 11, Baird put down two consecutive kills and senior Amanda Liguori followed, forcing a Samford timeout. Bognar got the Bulldogs a point out of the stoppage, but Wofford went on to score three straight to lead 17-12 as Samford spent another timeout. The five-point lead stayed intact and on a Greenwald service error the Terriers took the set 25-21, leading the match 2-1.
 
Coach Sweet's Terriers fought for the win through the fourth and fifth, but attack percentages of .062 and -.038 allowed Samford to pull a comeback. The Bulldogs led 20-19 in the fourth and rolled with five of the last six points to close out the set. In the fifth, Wofford was bitten again, falling to 2-7 on the season in five-set matches.
 
Terrier Notes
- Wofford earns the No. 7 seed for next weekend's Southern Conference Tournament. The Terriers will be making their first appearance since 2006.
- Senior setter Bekah Dorsey eclipsed 1,000 career digs, joining Joanna Suddath (2006-09) as the two Terriers to record both 1,000 digs and 3,000 assists.
- Wofford falls to 0-7 versus Samford in the all-time series.