Mocs Volleyball Wins Home Opener 3-1 Over Austin Peay
(gomocs.com) CHATTANOOGA — Chattanooga volleyball continued their historic start to the 2023 season in the team’s home-opener Wednesday night, as the Mocs took down Austin Peay 3-1 in Maclellan Gymnasium.
Despite dropping the opening set, the Mocs (6-1) showed great reserve to hold strong and ultimately topple the Governors (5-2) in four sets to claim their sixth victory of the young season. With the win, the Mocs have now tied the best start to a season in program history matching the 1987 UTC volleyball team. That 1987 ultimately went on to finish the year 20-8 overall with the team also winning the Southern Conference Tournament.
“It was a great battle against a very good team,” head coach Julie Torbett said. “We were both 5-1 entering the match and it was quite a battle. It was great to be able to play at home and play like that. I hope it keeps the fans coming back to see some more.”
To open the match, UTC was put on its backfoot as Austin Peay took command of the match from the jump, taking set one by a score of 25-19. This did not deter the Mocs, however, as the team was able to maintain a lead the entirety of the second set enroute to claiming a 25-21 set win to level the score at 1-1.
Set three was more of the same for Chattanooga, as the stout defensive backline held firm through a barrage of attacks from APSU. Behind the offense of Morgan Romano, the Mocs cruised to a 25-20 win to go up 2-1 heading into the fourth.
Now sensing that the Governors were on their heels, the Mocs didn’t let up as UTC powered through a tightly contested fourth set to sit with a 23-22 lead, just a pair of points away from the victory. Grad student Gylian Finch held the fate of the set in her hands, and she wasn’t about to waste it.
Finch ended the match on her terms, recording back-to-back service aces to seal a 25-22 set win and 3-1 victory for the Mocs when all was said and done. With the aces, Finch officially surpassed the 100-ace mark in her career with the Mocs, becoming just the ninth Moc to accomplish the feat in program history.
On the scoresheet it was once again Morgan Romano leading the way for the Mocs in kills with 20 on the night as Chard’e Vanzandt and Gylian Finch followed closely behind with 15 and 14, respectively. Setter Elaine Redman also continued her streak of leading the Mocs in assists, tallying 41 of the team’s 50.
On the defensive side of the ball, a total of five Mocs finish the match with double-digit digs including team-leader Paige Gallentine with 23 (Elaine Redman – 19, Gylian Finch – 18, Caiti Barthel – 14, Morgan Romano – 13). Marcelle Baez-Carlo would finish as the team’s leader in blocks with five.
UP NEXT
The Mocs will now have a quick turnaround for their next set of matches, as the team travels to Richmond, Kentucky, this weekend for the Geri Polvino Invitational at EKU. The Mocs will open their weekend with a pair of matches on Friday, September 8 against Georgia State (3-3) and Murray State (5-1) at 10 a.m. ET and 3 p.m. ET. The Mocs will then wrap up their tournament against host Eastern Kentucky (4-2) at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 9.
