Gary and Whitehead Lead Bulldogs Past Lamar :: Samford split Saturday's matches at MSU/Ramada Classic

Sept. 7, 2002

STARKVILLE, Miss. - The Samford volleyball team rebounded from a four-game loss to Boston College by surprising defending Southland Conference champion Lamar in five-games to split Saturday afternoon's action at the MSU/Ramada Classic hosted by Mississippi State.

Samford (2-5) had three players record double-doubles in the match. Hilary Gary recorded the first double-double of her career with 17 kills and 13 digs. Alyssa Whitehead was named to the All-Tournament team with her 12 kill and 19 dig performance. Brooke Berryman added 10 kills and 14 digs. Stefanie Pickett just missed a double-double with nine kills and 10 digs.

The Bulldogs won game one 30-28, game three 30-22, and game five 15-11. Lamar took games two and four 30-21 and 30-22. Natalie Sarver, who was also named to the All-Tournament team, led the Cardinals with 34 kills and 23 digs. Shana Hart-Baldwin added 15 kills and 16 digs for Lamar who drops to 3-3 on the season.

"We did a better job of realizing that losing a point is simply losing one point," said head coach Kris Dorn. "We played a little selfish this morning worrying about individual mistakes. This afternoon we kept our prospective and each player focused on their job rather than everyone else's. Lamar is a quality opponent and we needed everyone to play well and we did that."

Samford dropped its first match of the day to Boston College 3-1. After winning game one 30-26, the Bulldogs dropped the next three 30-15, 30-21, and 30-20. Whitehead had 12 kills and Gary had 12 digs to lead the Bulldogs.

Boston College (4-1) held the Bulldogs to a negative hitting percentage over games two and three. Liz Aron had 18 kills and 11 digs, Katie Anderson had 14 kills and 11 digs, and Rachel Bach had 16 kills to lead the Eagles. BC held a 12-5 advantage in blocks and had 10 service aces in the match.

Pickett had four block assists against BC and four more against Lamar to move her into fourth place on Samford's all-time block assists list. She now has 209 block assists which passes Amanda Backus' total of 205 from 1995-98. Tammy Worster (1994-97) is third on the list with 237.

The Bulldogs will open its home schedule against Alabama State on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. at Seibert Hall.