Blue-Gold Scrimmage Is Prelude To UTC Volleyball Regular Schedule

The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball program concluded their preseason schedule with the annual Blue and Gold intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday afternoon in Maclellan Gymnasium.

The three-set scrimmage featured the Mocs roster mixing up lineups on both the Blue and Gold teams. Blue jerseys came out victorious after earning a 2-1 (25-23, 27-25, 15-25) win over the Gold jerseys.

Head coach Travis Filar  said hewas glad for the opportunity to get better as a team heading into the first week of the season.

"I'm glad we had this opportunity on top of the one at Kennesaw State (exhibition match last Wednesday)," said Filar.

"I think we all left Kennesaw State a little disappointed in our level of play and mentality.

"I wanted this one for our kids to feel good and they did that. It was exactly what I was hoping for with both sides being super competitive, the effort and energy inside the gym as well as the communication on the court."

Junior Miranda Elpers racked up a scrimmage-best 19 kills while redshirt freshman Ally Fordfollowed up with 14 of her own. Senior setters Madison Bergren and Lauren Greenspoon directed the offense with 27 and 23 assists, respectively, while freshman setter Maddie Halsey chipped in with 14 assists.

Defensively, sophomore Mikaela Gauthreaux and redshirt freshman Sarah Root totaled 5.0 blocks while Dani Szczepanski collected 4.0. Junior libero Lindsey Farrell paced the match with 19 digs as freshman defender Megan Kaufman finished with 14 on the day.

"Overall it was a really good way to finish preseason and head into the next phase which is our non-conference tournaments," added Filar.

Chattanooga opens up the season on Friday at 2 p.m. against North Dakota in Oxford, Miss., as part of the Ole Miss Invitational.