Appalachian State volleyball hosted their final home matches of the season this past weekend, facing off against Samford University on Friday and UT Chattanooga on Saturday.
In addition to the games, the Mountaineers honored seniors Lauren Brown and Lindsey Sauls with a video montage and jersey dedication.
The team faced a tough challenge against conference-rival Samford, who is ranked third in the SoCon.
The Bulldogs came to Boone with a three-game win streak and gave the Mountaineers one of the most closely contested matches of the season.
The Mountaineers took an early lead against Samford in the first set. But, a total of 13 service and attack errors would cost App State the set, 25-22.
“We just didn’t execute,” Brown said. “There was a bunch of little plays where we could have made easy plays and we didn’t. It was the sum of a whole bunch of little plays.”
The Bulldogs managed to hold the Mountaineer offense to only a 13.8 hitting percentage on the night.
App State answered taking the second set, but Samford managed to gain composure in the final sets of the game, taking the third set from the Mountaineers 25-22 and the fourth set 26-24, despite a late Mountaineer rally.
“We weren’t getting offense out of three hitters and that really cost us,” head coach Matt Ginipro said. “But the good thing about it was we knew we only had to fix that one thing.”
Despite the close loss Friday, the Mountaineers came out energized to face Chattanooga on Saturday.
Finding their groove early on, App State managed to sweep the Mocs 3-0.
“[Friday night] we just weren’t in sync,” junior middle blocker Lauren Gray said. “But I think that tonight we proved that we changed it and that we’re ready to go to the championships and SoCon tournament.”
Scoring on the night was spread across the team with Gray leading with 13 kills. Sauls and Kat Ferrell recorded 9 kills and Corrigan followed with 8.
Paige Brown also contributed 43 assists, continuing her streak of games with at least 35 assists or more in SoCon play.
Before the weekend series, the Mountaineers managed a five-game win streak, including road victories over Davidson and Elon. Factoring in the weekend’s results, the team is now six for their last seven.
In less than a year, App State has managed an impressive turnaround from their 7-23 record last season. The team now stands at 17-11 with two more games on the season.
“It’s been awesome, the bounce back that they’ve had has been phenomenal,” Ginipro said. “The way they come in every day is great, so there’s some really nice things that we have looking forward to.”
The Mountaineers travel first to Charleston, S.C., to face The Citadel. Following the game against the Bulldogs, the Mountaineers will end their season against first place Georgia Southern.
App State will face The Citadel on Friday at 6 p.m.
Story: Chris Deverell, Intern Sports Reporter