SoCon Honors UTC Volleyball Coach Travis Filar

The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team earned two selections on both the All-Southern Conference First Team and Second Team, in addition to head coach Travis Filar taking the 2015 SoCon Coach of the Year, announced by the league today.

"Our team got the biggest award up to this point by winning the regular season conference championship," head coach Travis Filar stated. "With our team’s success, individual accolades are going to follow. This has been the most incredible team I have ever been a part of as a coach."

Receiving the honor for the first time in his career, Filar coached the Mocs to their first regular season title since 1998. The squad is 24-5, 13-3 in league play, marking the first time it’s reached 24 wins in regular season play.

In his fifth year as a head coach, Filar has led the culture change of Chattanooga volleyball. In his first season (2011-12), the Mocs went 5-26 and 3-13 in the league. The current five seniors are his first full recruiting class leading the team to success this year.

Highlighting Chattanooga with first-team honors were juniors outside hitter Allie Davenport and middle blocker Kristy Wieser.

Davenport collected 348 kills this season, averaging 3.88 per set. She tallied a season-best 26 kills at Western Carolina Saturday. This season she has racked up double-digit kills in 21 matches and earned two conference weekly honors.

Wieser is second in the league and 43rd nationally with a .377 hitting percentage. She has recorded a .300 clip or better in the last 13 matches. She has started every match this season and has also tallied 63 blocks, averaging 0.57 per set.

Senior libero Catherine Chason and sophomore setter Lauren Greenspoon  saw recognition on the second-team.

Chason boasts 522 digs, averaging 4.70 a set. She has marked double-digit digs in every match but one this year, moving her to fifth on UTC’s all-time career dig list at 1,549. As a consistent presence in the Mocs’ backcourt, she earned player of the week twice.

Greenspoon averages 11.11 assists per set after recording 1,133 assists this year, which ranks her 25th nationally. Her season-best was 60 assists during UTC’s first matchup with Furman this season. She also has seven double-doubles with assists and digs and a weekly and monthly league honor on her resume.

Chattanooga travels to Cullowhee, N.C., as the No. 1 seed for the Southern Conference Tournament. The Mocs first match is Saturday at 2:30 p.m. against the winner of No. 8 Western Carolina and No. 9 The Citadel.