The women’s volleyball team defeated the Furman Paladins, 3-2 (30-18, 22-30, 28-30, 30-21, 15-3) in a thrilling Southern Conference match Friday night in Brooks Gym.
The Bucs (16-3, 11-3) jumped out to an early lead in game one and cruised to a 30-18 victory.
Game two was almost a complete turnaround as the Paladins (12-9, 8-7) jumped out to a quick lead and comfortably won the second game, 30-22.
Game three was an exciting back-and-forth affair that truly went down to the wire.
The two teams traded points early before the Bucs opened up a seemingly comfortable 14-10 lead.
The Paladins then went on a 6-0 tear, taking a 16-14 advantage.
The Paladins would widen their lead until ETSU would make a charge of their own to cut the Furman lead to 29-28.
The Paladins then took the next point to win the third game, 30-28.
Game four was very similar to the first two as the Bucs took a small lead and expanded it throughout to claim a 30-21 victory.
The decisive fifth game was a tense battle as the two teams again went down to the wire.
The Bucs seemed to have closed out the match when they had a 14-10 lead late in the final game.
The Paladins then won three straight points to again put the game in doubt, however, ETSU was able to close out the match, 15-13.
The Bucs were led by senior setter Carey Cavanaugh who had a tremendous match with a season-high 62 assists, a match-high 19 digs and 10 kills.
Six Buccaneers had double-digit kills on the evening, led by sophomores Lissa Allen’s team-high 17. Cavanaugh, Allen, Amber Ciskowski and Karen Freeburg all registered double-doubles on the evening.

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