The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga volleyball team bounced back from a midweek loss at Samford and a first-set loss Friday to beat The Citadel 3-1 in a Southern Conference match in Maclellan Gym.
The set scores were 23-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-14 favoring the Mocs, who had three players with 14 kills - Kristy Wieser, Sarah Batterton and Briana Reid - to The Citadel's one, Bailey Kernodle. Laura Greenspoon had 55 assists and 12 digs and Miranda Elpers and Catherine Chason had 19 and 17 digs for UTC (21-5, 10-3). Reid added 10 digs.
Samford won again Friday over Furman, 3-0, knocking the Paladins (16-7, 10-3) out of sole possession of first place. That makes Furman's match tonight at UTC a showdown of co-leaders. UNC Greensboro shares the top spot.
At Cleveland, Tenn., Lee University beat visiting West Georgia 3-1 (23-25, 25-9, 25-23, 25-17) in a Gulf South Conference match as Silvia Sartori compiled 23 kills and 13 digs and Catherine Conley had 17 kills. Hillary Hoffpauir had 43 assists and Stephanie Hernandez made 26 digs. Blaire Beamer served three aces.
At Barbourville, Ky., first-place Bryan defeated second-place Union College 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-15) in an Appalachian Athletic Conference showdown. That lifted the Lady Lions (23-13, 17-2) to a three-match lead in the standings with the regular season ending today. In another AAC match, Bluefield won 3-1 (25-20, 25-19, 20-25, 25-21) over visiting Tennessee Wesleyan, which now is 11-15 overall, 9-10 in the league.
At Dalton, Ga., Dalton State won 3-0 over Loyola of New Orleans in their Southern States Athletic Conference match. The set scores were 25-17, 25-23, 25-21 with Maria Guntin making nine kills and Anna Metzler and Savannah Nelson adding eight apiece for the Roadrunners (12-13, 6-9). Setter Michala Askew had 32 assists, five aces and 12 digs, and Kianna Delaney had seven kills.
At Conway, Ark., Sewanee ended its season with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-15) loss in the Southern Athletic Association tournament against Birmingham-Southern, which is 23-4. Lauren Van Peursem and Jeneva Salter had 11 kills each for the victorious Panthers, who got 34 assists from Katie McCormack. Maggie Stanford had 10 kills and Lucy Riddle had 19 assists for Sewanee (10-15), while Sara Jayne Sutton and Diamond Stewart made 16 and 14 digs and Peyton Parent served three aces.
On Lookout Mountain, top-seeded Covenant moved into today's semifinals of the USA South tournament it is hosting by topping Ferrun 3-0 (25-11, 27-25, 25-22). Maryville, Averett and Meredith won the earlier matches. For Covenant (17-12), Chelsea VanDyk and Ginny Moore had 11 and 10 kills, Schuyler Moore had 32 assists and Ginny Moore and Hannah Stewart had 17 and 15 digs.