Volleyball's Rally Falls Short Against Samford
10/23/2011 2:24:00 AM | Volleyball
STATESBORO, Ga. - After falling behind 2-0 the Georgia Southern Volleyball team (13-12, 5-4) rallied to win the third set before dropping a Southern Conference contest to the Samford Bulldogs (21-3, 8-2) 3-1 on Saturday night. Four Eagles recorded 10 or more kills in the annual Dig Pink contest.
The Bulldogs hit over .300 as a squad and tallied 11 blocks to win their 21st match of the season 31-29, 25-16, 23-25, 25-23. Elizabeth Neisler hit .405 on the night and posted a game-high 20 kills. Alexis Bauer led the Samford defense with 19 digs and two others posted double-digit counts in the dig category.
The Eagles were hindered by a .178 hitting percentage, their lowest in 13 matches, and hit below .200 in all but the third set. Hannah Nelson (Norcross, Ga.) and Bethany Sanford (Avondale, Ariz.) led the team with 12 kills each, while Enjoli Johnson (Lilburn, Ga.) added 11 kills with only one error. Nicole Jeschelnik (Ladera Ranch, Calif.) rounded out the Georgia Southern offense with 10 kills in 25 attempts.
Moriah Bellissimo (Blackstone, Va.) tallied nearly half of the Eagles' 66 digs. She posted a career-high 30 digs on the defensive end to help hold the Bulldog attack at bay.
Georgia Southern fought hard in the first set and even lead 25-24 on a service ace by Hayli Ketner (Spartanburg, S.C.). The Bulldogs rattled off the next two points to pull ahead 26-25. The back and forth scoring continued with the score being tied at 28 and 29 all before a kill by Neisler put Samford up 30-29. The Eagles committed an attack error to end the set.
Samford carried their momentum over from the first set victory and took an early 10-6 lead in set two. They continued to lead 14-10 in the middle of the set and extended that lead to 18-11. The Eagles could not shave down the margin and fell 25-16.
Georgia Southern won the hotly contested third set 25-23 before falling in the fourth set by the same score. The Eagles rallied from a 19-16 deficit late in the match. A couple of Samford errors sparked the run and kills by Johnson and Parker Small (Charlotte, N.C.) helped the Eagles secure the set point.
Georgia Southern returns to the court of Hanner Fieldhouse tomorrow afternoon for a 2 p.m. contest with Chattanooga on Sunday.
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