Wofford College Athletics

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Despite a career-high 16 kills from freshman Alex Holland and finishing the match plus-12 in the kill column, the Wofford volleyball team lost a Southern Conference battle to Chattanooga in four sets (26-24, 19-25, 20-25, 22-25) Friday night at Benjamin Johnson Arena.
 
Wofford (9-11, 2-2 SoCon) saved a set point and scored the final three to win the first and take a one-set lead. Chattanooga (10-10, 3-2 SoCon) recovered by winning the next three sets, taking advantage of 27 combined Terrier attack errors along the way. The Mocs also outhit Wofford .270 to .077 in the final two frames.
 
Holland's 16 kills came on a team-high .243 attack percentage. The rookie outside eclipsed her previous high of 13 kills and also added three blocks.
 
Joining Holland in double figures were senior Taylor Baird and freshman Bella Santoro. Baird went for 13 kills and Santoro had 12, but the tandem racked up 17 combined errors and hit just .176 and .059, respectively. Santoro did post her team-leading sixth double-double of the season with 14 digs.
 
Chattanooga was led by sophomore Allie Davenport's team-high 12 kills. The outside hitter hit .281 and also played well on defense, going for a season-high 13 digs to earn her second double-double of the year. Redshirt sophomore Nicole Sumida had 10 kills and hit an impressive .333 with four blocks, helping the Mocs out-block the Terriers 9-7. Junior libero Catherine Chason had a mach-high 17 digs.
 
Friday night's opening set saw the most ties and lead changes of the match. The Terriers and Mocs were level 10 times and the lead changed hands on five occasions. It was UTC that put together the first run on Anne Bachmann's serve, scoring five straight points to go on top 9-5. Densford got on the board to put Bachmann's run to an end and earned back-to-back kills before a Baird ace cut the margin back to just one.
 
Wofford got to within a single point eight different times before finally converting on one of Santoro's four kills in the set to tie the score at 21. Still, UTC held on and Julimar Alvarado made it 24-23 Mocs for either team's first chance at the set. Baird saved the set with consecutive kills and earned Wofford a chance at the lead. The Terriers converted, as Santoro and junior Liz Buterbaugh rejected a Sumida attack to win the first.
 
The first set was Wofford's best of the night, hitting .239 with 19 kills to just nine for the Mocs. Freshman setter Molly Mayo had an impressive 15 assists and Holland led the attack by hitting .333 with five kills.
 
That was as good as it got. Chattanooga took control in the second by outhitting Wofford .259 to .179. Though the Mocs had just 10 kills to Wofford's 12, they also only had three attacking errors, while the home side suffered from seven to go along with four serving errors. Densford and Holland were the highlight of the set, combining for five kills and no errors, but Chattanooga led wire-to-wire to level the match at a set apiece.
 
Wofford led the third 17-14 before things started to go downhill. Alvarado put down a kill, followed by consecutive Terrier attack errors to level the set at 17. After Mayo and Alvarado traded kills, Wofford had three straight attack errors to go down 21-18, giving Chattanooga its first lead of the set. Holland brought the margin to 22-20, but Sumida found a kill and two more attack errors ended the third with Chattanooga on top two sets to one.
 
After posting 10 attack errors in the third, the Terriers repeated with 10 more in the fourth. It was too much to recover from, especially with the Mocs finding 14 kills. It was also Wofford's worst attacking game of the night, hitting just .057 to Chatt's mark of .235.
 
The Mocs took the lead at 3-2 in the final set and never gave it back. Wofford got within a point three times – the final occasion coming at 17-16. Sophomore Kristy Weiser then began a 5-1 Chatt run that ended with a Wofford timeout after Densford and Holland missed on consecutive attempts, and the visitors in front 22-17.
 
Sumida put down a kill to earn the Mocs a match point at 24-19, but Wofford came to life with kills by Holland and Santoro. The Terriers got all the way back to 24-22 and even forced the Mocs to talk things over after seemingly having the match wrapped up. Flaherty came back on to continue serving the run, but missed out of the stoppage and the Mocs walked away with their third straight SoCon victory.
 
The Wofford volleyball team hosts one of the Southern Conference's two unbeatens on Saturday. The Terriers will look to turn things around and hand Samford (11-7, 5-0 SoCon) its first league defeat. First serve is scheduled for 3 p.m.