Box Score

ELON, N.C. – The Elon University volleyball team opened up Southern Conference play with an exciting 3-1 victory over Samford (25-23, 23-25, 25-23, 25-14) at home in Jordan Gym on Saturday night.

Senior Sarah Schermerhorn and junior Caroline Lemke tallied 10 kills a piece to lead the Phoenix past the Bulldogs.

Elon now pulls to 8-8 on the season and 1-0 in SoCon play, while Samford drops its second match in as many days and moves to 6-10 (0-2 SoCon).

“I was very proud of the girls for starting conference play out in a positive way,” said Elon head volleyball coach Mary Tendler. “They followed the game plan really, really well and it was just a fun match to play. There were a lot of momentum swings going back and forth, but I was really proud of the girls for pulling out the win.”

In the first set, Elon took an early 3-2 advantage and never trailed again in the set en route to a 25-23 victory. After the Bulldogs won the second set 23-25, the Phoenix fell behind once again in third set 10-4. Elon rallied back with consistent runs to pull within two points at 23-21. The Phoenix went on to score the last four points with three consecutive attack errors by the Bulldogs and a kill from Schermerhorn to clinch the set, 25-23.

With a 2-1 match lead, Elon went into the potentially deciding fourth set with its first conference victory in sight. Samford once again took the early advantage, 4-1, but with a kill from senior Lauren Copenhagen the Phoenix quickly tied the set at five-all. Elon dominated the rest of the night winning the fourth set, 25-14, with another game-point kill from Schermerhorn.

Elon held Samford to a .030 hitting percentage in the fourth set, while tallying a match-total 12 team blocks to the Bulldogs' seven. Schermerhorn and Lemke each had five total blocks with Lemke recording four solo on the night.

The Elon volleyball team returns to action tomorrow for another home conference match-up against Chattanooga at 2 p.m. in Jordan Gym.