Volleyball Flies Over Air Force 3-1 :: Whitehead and Gary lead Bulldogs to first win

Sept. 5, 2003

ATLANTA, Ga. - Alyssa Whitehead had 18 digs while Hilary Gary added 12 kills to lead the Samford volleyball team to a 3-1 victory over the Air Force Academy Friday afternoon in the first match of the Georgia State Invitational.

Whitehead, playing in her first match of the season led all players in kills while hitting .167 on the match. She also had eight digs. The Bulldogs used an effective middle attack as Gary hit .233 (12-5-30) and Stefanie Pickett hit .400 (9-1-20) out of the middle.

Air Force (2-2) used a powerful attack to win game one 30-24. Delavane Diaz had seven of her team-high 17 kills in the opener. Diaz added 14 digs for her second-straight double-double. Kristin Hamlett had 12 kills for the Falcons.

Samford (1-3) stormed back to take the final three games 30-21, 30-27, and 30-24. The Bulldogs forced nine AFA hitting errors in each of the second and third games to help turned the tide of the match. Both teams blocked well as Air Force had a season-high 12 blocks while the Bulldogs had eight blocks and eight service aces.

"We finally stopped playing tentative," said Samford head coach Kris Dorn. "We started playing with heads in the second game and played our best match of the year. Now we have to refocus for tonight."

Samford will face former Atlantic Sun Conference opponent Georgia State at 7 p.m. eastern time.