SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford volleyball team was firing on all cylinders Saturday night in the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium, prevailing over Chattanooga in a straight-set sweep (25-18, 27-25, 25-18) to advance to the Southern Conference Championship Match. The seventh-seeded Mocs drop to 19-14 to conclude their season, and No. 3 Wofford improves to 22-7 with the win.
 
By advancing to the title match, Wofford has reached the pinnacle of the SoCon Tournament for the third time in program history and for the second time in three seasons, previously advancing in 2017 and 2021. With 22 victories, the Terriers have matched their most wins in a season under head coach Lynze Roos (2017).
 
"It's awesome. It brings me back to my sophomore year when we went, and this time it's even better because we're at home," said senior Addison Foote of advancing to the title match. "But it's awesome, and this group of girls – I wouldn't want to be with anyone else. They're amazing, so I'm so excited to play with them tomorrow."
 
Tonight's semifnal match-up was played in front of a roaring crowd of 916, the highest attendance for a Wofford volleyball in the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium ever.
 
"Honestly, it's so amazing to just know we have this many people who want to come watch us play and are also so invested in our play and our success," said junior Mary Emily Morgan of the crowd turnout and atmosphere. "It feels amazing, and it makes it so much easier to play at home, too."
 
Wofford out-hit Chattanooga .248 to .164. Successful across the board tonight, the Terriers notched seven blocks and seven aces to top the five of the Mocs in each. Wofford posted 48 kills to Chattanooga's 37, and the Terriers dished 10 more assists (44-34). With 70 digs to Chattanooga's 61, Wofford also held down the defensive end.
 
Sarah MacLean paced the Wofford offensive for a second-straight night with 11 kills. Millie Loehr added nine, and Sarah Barham had eight. Mary Emily Morgan and Addison Foote each contributed seven. Barham and Loehr each hit .412 in the contest to top the Terriers, and MacLean added a .320 hitting clip.
 
At the net, Foote led the blocking efforts with three denials. Loehr added three, and Barham had two. Emily Hodsdon dished a team-best 23 assists, and Taylor Pecht added 15 helpers of her own. Pecht also tied for the service lead with a pair aces, matching the two of Laney Klika. Elise Schneider, Morgan and Hodsdon all had one each.
 
Morgan and Klika tied for the team led in digs with 18 each. Hodsdon had 10 to tally a double-double for a second-straight night. It is her 10^th of the season and the 31^st of her career. Pecht recorded eight digs to fall just short of a double-double, and Foote added seven.
 
"I think we were just trying to keep it simple," said Morgan of the team's digging success. "What our coaches tell us in pregame is really important, so the more we can just remember to repeat that then the more successful we're going to be. But it's just not doing too much, and trusting our blockers to get good tags also really helps."
 
The Mocs opened the match with the first three points, but Wofford responded in kind with the next three to tie it up. This would be the first of six ties in the set, with another coming at 12-12 with a Chattanooga kill. But a service error flipped the serve to Wofford, at which point Mary Emily Morgan delivered and ace. An error gave way to a block by Addison Foote and Sarah Barham, giving the Terriers a 16-12 advantage. Though the Mocs claimed the next point, Wofford embarked on another four-point run that featured a pair of Sarah MacLean kills for a 20-13 lead. Chattanooga would give its best efforts to come back, but the hole proved too great to overcome as Morgan's kill iced the set, 25-18, for Wofford.
 
The Terriers rode their momentum into the second set, running out to an early 11-5 lead thanks in large part to three kills by Sarah MacLean and a Taylor Pecht ace. But the Mocs would chip away, eventually pulling even at 16-all. However, MacLean again went on the attack with a kill, and Addison Foote teamed with Millie Loehr on a block to highlight what became a three-point swing for the Terriers with Wofford up 19-16. After Chattanooga pulled within one point (20-19), Loehr put home a kill, and Elise Schneider came on and immediately delivered an ace for a 22-19 Wofford advantage.  However, the Mocs battled back and pulled level, 22-22. Natalie Arnold put home a kill, but Chattanooga claimed the next two points to bring up set point. A Sarah Barham kill evened things back up, but the Mocs pulled back up with a kill, 25-24. But the Terriers remained resilient, as Barham delivered another kill, and Wofford forced an attack error for its own set point. Laney Klika then stepped up, sending in an ace for a 27-25 set two win.
 
The teams went back-and-forth early in set three as Chattanooga tried to stay alive, leading 10-9. But Natalie Arnold's kill sparked a four-point Wofford run for a 13-10 lead. Another four-point run not long thereafter would put the Terriers ahead 18-12 thanks to another Laney Klika ace and Sarah MacLean's kill. Chattanooga pushed back to pull within three (18-15), but Addison Foote delivered a kill to kick-start another four-point swing that she punctuated with another kill to put Wofford up 22-15. That would prove to be the backbreaker, as though the Mocs gave their last-ditch efforts, Arnold put home the match-winning kill to send the Terriers to the SoCon Championship Match tomorrow.
 
That title tilt is set for 4:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon inside Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. No. 3 Wofford will face No. 4 Samford for the Southern Conference Championship.
 
"I think playing as a team and just getting in there and supporting each other," said Foote of the key to tomorrow's championship bout. "Just thinking about everything we've been through this season to get to the point where we are now, we're going to be well-prepared. We know we have it in us, so I just think it's about staying together and focusing on that."