Sept. 12, 2003

Final Stats

Birmingham, Ala. - The Western Carolina volleyball team came back from two games down to defeat Samford Friday night, 26-30, 23-30, 30-23, 30-28, 15-8. The Catamounts improve to 4-3 on the season with the win, while Samford falls to 2-6.

The Bulldogs hit an impressive .452 in the first and held WCU to an .047 percentage in the second game. The match turned after the intermission when WCU's Ellie Talbot took off the libero jersey and played all the way around. Talbot finished with 10 kills and 11 digs. Setter Shari Harder had a triple double with 11 kills, 51 assists, and 15 digs. Kellyn Thaut led the Catamounts with 18 kills and 14 digs. Sara Komosinski had 17 kills and 16 digs and Michelle Gorton added 14 kills for Western.

"We didn't start off very strong tonight," head coach Angell Benson said. "But we didn't give up. We came back in the third game and the girls gave it everything they had. Give credit to Samford. They really came ready to play us tonight."

Western Carolina jumped out to an 8-1 lead to begin game five. The Catamounts ended the game hitting .304 compared to -.038 for the Bulldogs in the deciding game. WCU out-hit Samford .211-.194 for the match and out blocked the Bulldogs 11-7.

WCU returns to action Saturday against UAB at 10:00 am (CST) and South Alabama at 3:00 pm (CST).