Early Week Roundup: Volleyball Claims Top Seed and Baseball Gets Back on the Right Track
- Chris S
- Mar 30, 2021
- 3 min read
Volleyball
To quote the former Head Football Coach for the Auburn Tigers, "BOOM!" Samford put Sunday's tough loss in the rear view mirror and used a thrilling 3-2 victory over The Citadel (30-28, 18-25, 31-29, 17-25, 15-13) to claim a share of the Regular Season Title and thereby earn the right to host the entire tournament here on the only campus located in the Central Time Zone.
Kenya McQuirter barely edged out Lauren Deaton (19) for the team lead in kills as the redshirt freshman tallied 20. Redshirt Junior Sinclaire Green had the third most kills for the good Bulldogs with 6.
Sierra Rayzor and Briana Holmes made sure that their presence at the net was felt as the pair of middle blockers each tallied 7 blocks. Rayzor had 2 solo blocks and 5 assists while Holmes had 1 solo block and 6 assists.
I know I've said it before, but it's the best way I know how to succinctly describe her performance: Freshman Kayla Keshock continues to impress as she tallied 50 assists in Monday's match. I'm not a volleyball expert, but that seems, well, impressive. Especially given the fact that the rest of the team combined for only 9 assists.
With Monday's victory, Samford secured the top spot of the SoCon tournament and earned the right to host Wofford, Mercer, and Western Carolina as the top four teams of the conference vie for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in Omaha, Nebraska. Round one of the tournament will begin on Friday with Samford taking on Wofford. Mercer-WCU will follow. The Championship game will take place the next day.
Baseball
After dropping the finale of last weekend's series against ETSU, Samford used a big 5th inning and a solid 8th inning to scrape by Jacksonville State by a score of 5-4. The game was in no way pretty, both in terms of weather (hard rain at the end of the game) and with Samford committing as many errors as the Gamecocks scored runs.
The game was a true bullpen game as no pitcher for the Bulldogs lasted for longer than 2 innings. Carson Hobbs (W, 1-0) picked up the win after coming in to relieve Billy Creager. Carson allowed just 1 hit and struck out two, but the one hit drove in runs 3 and 4 for the Gamecocks. However, Creager was tagged with both runs as he was the one on the mound when they reached base. Carson Cupo (S, 2) pitched a solid 9th inning, seeing only one batter reach on an error.
Samford was patient at the plate on Tuesday night, collecting 7 free passes. In the 3-run 5th inning, every run was scored with 3 bases-loaded walks. In the 8th, Ryan Crockett drove in Tyler McManus and Carson Eddy (pinch running for Brooks Carlson) with a single.
Samford will spend the next 7 games at home. This weekend's series is against VMI with a doubleheader on Friday and a single game on Saturday. Troy will then make the journey to Birmingham to finish up the season series on April 6th. The Bulldogs will then host The Citadel for another weekend series with just one game on Friday and a doubleheader on Saturday, April 9th and 10th respectively.
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