‘Cats Fall to Samford 3-1 in SoCon Road Match

Sunday, October 21

Birmingham, Ala.

2:00 pm

Davidson College

8-12, 4-6SoCon

Samford

16-8, 8-2SoCon

Davidson

Samford

‘Cats Fall to Samford 3-1 in SoCon Road Match

10/21/2012 6:48:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Ashley Bailey

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Davidson volleyball team managed to take a set from the Samford Bulldogs but couldn't take the match, falling 3-1 on the road in Southern Conference action by set scores of 17-25, 22-25, 25-23 and 12-25 on Sunday afternoon.

The Wildcats are now 8-12 on the season with a 4-6 record in SoCon action. The Bulldogs are among the league leaders with a 16-8 record and 8-2 conference mark.

Davidson out-blocked Samford 7.0 team blocks to 3.0 team blocks, led by Tindall Sewell's four block assists. Ariel Ley and Shannon McPherson each added in three block assists apiece, with Ley recording a team-high 38 assists and nine digs.

Caroline Brown had a match-high 13 kills, followed by Megan Chamberlin's 12. However, it was Michelle McNeight who was the most accurate hitter of the day with an attacking percentage of .333. Four Wildcat players finished the day hitting .290 or better as the squad hit .207 on the day.

Leading the defense was Molly Crenshaw with 22 digs, while Brown and Jenna Ptaschinksi each totaled eight on the day. Three Wildcat players recorded service aces.

A trio of Bulldogs finished with double-digit kills, paced by Katie Murphy's 21. Casey Garvey had 56 assists in the match, while Alexis Bauer had a match-high 22 digs. Samford hit .278 on the day, let by Murphy's .588 hitting percentage.

The Bulldogs rushed out to an 11-3 lead on a kill by Murphy in set one. A 6-1 run by Davidson cut the deficit to three on a kill by Taylor Pisel, but the match would soon swing back to the 'Dogs' favor as the took an 18-10 advantage. The 'Cats struggled to regain momentum and dropped the set 17-25.

The 'Cats kept it close in the second match and a kill by Chamberlin would give them a 13-10 lead. McPherson notched a kill to keep them in front 17-15, but Samford would tie the set at 18-18 soon after. The Bulldogs kept the momentum going to finish things off, going on a 5-2 as the 'Cats fell 22-25 to drop to 0-2 in the match.

Samford kept the slim lead into the third set before the 'Cats were able to even things up at 15-15. This time, it was Davidson who kept things going. Brown and McNeight rattled off kills while Sewell and Ley recorded a block to give the Wildcats the
25-23 set win and cut the overall deficit to 1-2.

However, the 'Cats were unable to carry the momentum into the fourth set and quickly found themselves down by five early on. The Bulldogs scored nine unanswered points to go ahead 21-9 and finished things off with a Murphy kill soon after to win the set 25-12 and take the match 3-1.

The Wildcats will head south next weekend, traveling to Charleston for a pair of SoCon matches. First up is a 5 p.m. tilt with the College of Charleston on Saturday at T.D. Arena, followed by a 2 p.m. match up with the Citadel at McAllister Fieldhouse on Sunday.