SPARTANBURG, S.C. – After two weeks on the road, the Wofford volleyball team returned to the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium in style, downing rival Furman in straight sets (25-17, 25-14, 25-23) Friday night. Wofford improves to 14-5 (6-1 SoCon) with the triumph as Furman drops to 7-8 (1-3 SoCon).
 
The win marks Wofford's 16^th in a row at home. The Terriers have now won six-straight contests over the Paladins. The sweep is the third consecutive for Wofford with five of the last six matches ending in a Terrier straight-set win.
 
The Terriers topped the stats sheet in most marks, notably posting a season-high 13 blocks to top the 11 of the Paladins. Wofford utilized 10 more kills with 39 to the 29 of Furman while also hitting at a more efficient rate, .164 to .036. The Paladins were guilty of seven more attack errors, 24 to 17. Though Furman tallied one more ace, 6-5, Wofford posted 10 more assists (37-26) while also holding down the back line better with 70 digs to 62 of the Paladins.
 
"I think all week we really worked on our press and our block setup. I think that we just did a really good job of preparing for this match block-wise, and I think it really showed tonight in the way that we played," said Mary Emily Morgan of the team's season-high blocks.
 
Mary Emily Morgan led the charge for Wofford with 12 kills, eight of which came in the second set. Sarah MacLean and Bri Mahoney each posted eight kills behind her. Taylor Pecht fed the offense with her 21 assists, and Maddy Frazier contributed 12 of her own.
 
Bradley Brown owned the net with six blocks, matching her career best. Half of the swats were solo. MacLean added five denials with Annemarie Rakoski posting four. Laney Klika added 19 digs to pace all players, and Mahoney recorded 11. Pecht notched 10 for her ninth double-double of the season and the 16^th of her career. Morgan was one short of a double-double with nine digs.
 
"Whenever we're doing our scouting, we always just say 'relentless defense,'" said Klika of the team's digging defense. "I say this every time because it's just so true for us. We always just go for everything that we see, and I think that showed a lot tonight. Everybody that was back there was just going for it, putting their bodies out on the line, and I was just really proud of us tonight."
 
Frazier led the service efforts with a pair of aces. Mahoney, Klika and Pecht each added one.
 
Furman held an early 6-3 lead to open the match before the Terriers rattled off a six-point to take a 9-6 lead. Natlie Arnold and Maddy Frazier opened the run with kills, and after a pair of Furman errors, Arold teamed with Bradley Brown for a block before Bri Mahoney capped the run with a kill. Furman would pull the set level at 11-all before back-to-back Terrier points returned to lead to Wofford, who would not relinquish it the rest of the set. However, Furman remained close for a while, pulling within 17-15 before Brown added a kill and block to create some distance. Arnold posted a kill for a 20-16 advantage before a Furman kill, but that would be the last Paladin strike. Mahoney's ensuing kill sparked a five-point run to end the set, which was punctuated by a MacLean kill for the 25-17 win.
 
Set two opened with Furman up 2-1 before Mary Emily Morgan took charge. Mahoney and MacLean posted back-to-back kills to set up Morgan recording four kills in a row. A Furman error followed to mark a seven-point Terrier swing for an 8-2 lead. The Paladins gave their best efforts to fight back from there, but the early swarm kept them out of sync the rest of the way. Back-to-back points pulled Furman within 17-12, but the Terriers responded with four in a row to pull out to a 21-12 advantage. Morgan added two more kills in the run with Brown and MacLean teaming for a block to cap it. After two more Furman points, the Terriers ran away from there to close out the frame. Notably, Brown and MacLean teamed for another block before a Maddy Frazier ace, and Morgan fittingly ended the set with a kill, her eighth of the frame. Wofford won set two by a staggering 25-14 margin.
 
Wofford carried the momentum into set three, leading 7-2 early with Morgan adding two more kills alongside a tag-team block by Annemarie Rakoski and MacLean. Frazier's ace marked the seventh point. The Terriers continued to piece together small runs, eventually pulling out to a 13-7 advantage before pushing it to a 19-15 margin. But Furman remained resilient in this set and pulled within 19-17. However, four-straight Terrier points created some separation as Rakoski posted a solo denial before a Mahoney ace. MacLean and Rakoski tallied kills, and despite a Furman response, MacLean struck again for match point at 24-18. But the Paladins gave one final surge, recording the following five point to pull within one at 24-23. MacLean stepped up to end things, though, notching a kill to claim the set 25-23 and as such the match in straight sets.
 
Wofford remains home tomorrow night for a match-up against Mercer to conclude the first half of conference play. The contest against the Bears is set to begin at 6:00 p.m. inside the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.