Wednesday, October 06, 2004

(Oct. 6, 2004) - The Lady Bucs volleyball squad hosted in-state rival Chattanooga tonight at Brooks Gymnasium losing to the Lady Mocs in five (23-30, 27-30, 30-25, 30-23, 9-15).  With the loss, ETSU drops to 2-13, 1-4 in Southern Conference competition, while UTC improves to 3-12, and a 1-4 SoCon record.  Leading the way for ETSU was freshman Callie Kiselich (Colorado Springs, Co.) who posted 18 kills hitting .255 for the night, while Lindsey Galloway paced the Lady Mocs with 13 kills and 15 digs for the match.

The Lady Bucs fell behind early in game one before nearing the match at 15-16 behind two straight points from the service of sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Sartor (Toronto, Canada) before the Lady Mocs offense fought for the win at 30-23.  Game two started much the same with ETSU quickly trailing and once again plagued by service errors.  Through two games the Lady Bucs tallied seven errors compared to just four by UTC from the service stripe.  ETSU fell in game two by a score of 27-30.

After the intermission the Lady Bucs fell behind early in game three only to tie the match at 14-14 behind the service of libero Natalie Pittenger (Gaston, Ind.) who led ETSU to five straight points.  After three unanswered points from the UTC offense, Sara Scandiffio (Purcellville, Va.) managed four straight points to give ETSU the 22-19 lead they would never give up.  ETSU took game three with a final score of 30-25.  After an impressive performance in the third game, the Lady Bucs continued their momentum into game four.  The match went point-for-point through the first half of the match, until ETSU lengthened the lead at 21-19 with Karen Freeburg (New Castle, Ind.) serving three straight points for the Bucs.  After two kills from freshman outside hitter Michelle Mislan (Indianapolis, Ind.), the Lady Bucs posted the game four win with a tally of 30-23.

After battling back from two games down, ETSU fell behind 7-4 in game five never able to regain momentum to the Lady Mocs offense.  UTC managed the 15-9 win taking the match 3-2.  From the defensive side, UTC held the advantage with 9.0 total blocks compared to the 8.0 of ETSU.  ETSU setter Brittany Kessel (Libertyville, Ill.) tallied 53 assists adding 19 digs in the loss, while Pittenger managed 31 digs for the night.

ETSU will be back in action on the road this weekend facing Elon Oct. 8^th at 7:00 pm and finishing weekend competition at UNC-Greensboro at 2:00 pm on Oct. 9^th.  As always, check www.ETSUBucs.com for scores and updates.