Golden Eagle volleyball falls to Radford, Samford on day one of Samford-UAB Challenge
The Tennessee Tech volleyball team (3-2) kicked off their second tournament weekend with matches versus Radford (4-0) and Samford (3-1) on day one of the Samford-UAB Challenge in Birmingham, Ala.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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26 | 27 | 25 | 3 |
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24 | 25 | 17 | 0 |
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
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25 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 1 |
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20 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
Team Stats
Radford
| Game Statistics | Radford | Tennessee Tech |
|---|---|---|
| Hitting % | .248 | .116 |
| Blocks | 8.0 | 0.0 |
| Digs | 61 | 61 |
| Aces | 0 | 4 |
Samford
| Game Statistics | Tennessee Tech | Samford |
|---|---|---|
| Hitting % | .124 | .243 |
| Blocks | 7.0 | 10.0 |
| Digs | 58 | 66 |
| Aces | 4 | 5 |
By Holly Weber, TTU Sports Information
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—The Tennessee Tech volleyball team (3-2) kicked off their second tournament weekend with matches versus Radford (4-0) and Samford (3-1) on day one of the Samford-UAB Challenge in Birmingham, Ala. The Golden Eagles started the morning off with a match versus the Highlanders where Radford topped Tech 3-0. The Highlanders saw winning set scores of 26-24, 27-25, and 25-17. In the Golden Eagle's second match of the day versus Samford, the Bulldogs topped Tech 3-1 with set scores of 20-25, 25-18, 25-18, and 25-20.
"I think we still kept our energy up even though we had some fall downs and learned a lot today," Golden Eagle senior Sharon Anderson commented. "We saw that we are not always going to have that high energy every match and we have to pick up our play. But tomorrow is a new day and we are going to come in focused and not worry about what happened today. We are better team in both situations and we are going to set the bar and not let the other teams set it for us."
A 5-5 tie kicked off set one for Tech versus Radford. The Golden Eagles then went on to pull ahead 9-6 over the Highlanders, taking advantage of Radford errors. Tech continued to hold the advantage over the Highlanders, pulling ahead 12-9 with a K'Vonna Johnson kill. Radford staged a comeback when the Highlanders pulled within one of the Golden Eagles at 15-14 with an Amaya Rousseau kill. Radford put pressure on the Tech squad and tied the match at 17-17, before taking the 18-17 lead over the Golden Eagles. Here, the Purple and Gold team called for a timeout to regroup and came out fighting to retake the lead at 19-18 with back-to-back kills from Johnson and Rachel Thomas, however, Radford refused to letup and pulled ahead 21-19 over Tech causing the Golden Eagles to call for another timeout. Out of the break, Tech came back to tie the match at 21-21. The Highlanders then pulled ahead 23-21 over the Golden Eagles, but Tech quickly came back to tie things up again at 23-23, but Radford continued to battle and snuck out a first set victory 26-24.
The theme of set two was a seesaw affair. The Golden Eagles and Highlanders started off the set with multiple ties up to 18-18. Radford then took the 20-18 lead over Tech taking advantage of a Golden Eagles attack error followed by a Highlander kill. The Purple and Gold team then called for a timeout. After the break, Radford remained dominant in the set to extend its lead to 22-19 over Tech. Tech would not relent and came back to tie the set at the last second 25-25, however, Radford remained strong and pulled out a second set victory over the Golden Eagles 27-25.
Radford took a commanding 10-4 lead over Tech to start set three. The Golden Eagles pulled within three points of the Highlanders with two kills in a row from Sydney Lemon and Abigail Duncan. However, Radford endured and stretched its lead to 19-13 over Tech, before closing out a third set and match victory 25-17.
Sophomore Shealene Little led the Golden Eagles with eight kills and nine digs in the match. Teammate Sharon Anderson posted 28 assists in the match, while Wade had 19 digs. Maddie Palmer led Radford with 13 kills and 12 digs.
"We served pretty well as a whole," head coach Dave Zelenock remarked. "We got both teams out of their system, but Samford started to settle into good rhythm late in match. We just need to work on being more consistent. We would have a huge play and then be thrown in the same situation and handle it completely differently."
Against Samford, Tech took the early 5-1 lead with a kill from Thomas. The Bulldogs pulled within one point of the Golden Eagles at 9-8 with a kill from Kate Neisler. Samford then went on to tie things up at 11-11, and then take their first lead of the match at 13-11 causing Tech to call for a timeout. Junior Kellie Williams came out of the timeout strong to put down a kill for the Golden Eagles to cut the Bulldogs lead to 13-12. After much back and forth, Tech retook the lead at 15-14 with a kill from freshman Thomas, and then extended the lead to 16-14 when Povey posted a kill causing Samford to take a timeout. Out of the break, the Purple and Gold squad remained dominant and took a four-point lead at 19-15 before closing out a first set victory 25-20 with a kill from Williams.
In set two, Samford created a six-point lead at 16-10 to start. Later on, the Bulldogs stretched their lead to 22-13 before Samford won the second set 25-18. Set three started off close between the two teams opening play with various ties up to 11-11. Samford then took four-point leads at 15-11 and 18-14 before pulling ahead two sets to one with a 25-18 set three victory.
The Golden Eagles came out strong in the fourth set taking the initial 8-2 lead over the Bulldogs. Samford then came back to pull within one point of Tech, 9-8, causing the Golden Eagles to call for a timeout. After the break, the Bulldogs tied things up at 9-9 and again at 11-11, before taking their first lead of the game at 12-11 with a kill from Neisler. The Bulldogs maintained the lead moving ahead by three points at 19-16 pushing the Golden Eagles to take another timeout. Samford then extended their lead to 22-19, before sealing a fourth set and match victory 25-20.
"Sharon's setting really well right now," Zelenock continued. "She passes and runs the offense well, especially when she's on."
Thomas led the Golden Eagles with 9 kills and 3 blocks. Anderson notched her third double-double of the season with 29 assists and 10 digs in the match. Neisler led the Bulldogs with 18 kills and 13 digs.
"Rachel [Thomas] is a great listener and she takes coaching really well," Zelenock said. "She doesn't wear her errors like a lot of people do. For instance, she got blocked straight down today, but you wouldn't know it by her reaction. She is very professional and handles herself well, which is great for us because we can tend to get down with errors. Overall, she is a great teammate, extremely coachable, and has a very high ceiling."
Tech returns to action Saturday when they play against Northwestern State at 2 p.m. and UAB at 6 p.m.
