ETSU volleyball gave seniors Carey Cavanaugh and Amber Ciskowski the going-away present they wanted as the Bucs defeated Wofford in four games, 21-30, 30-17, 30-24 and 30-25, in the season’s final home match Sunday afternoon.
Adding to the emotion of the day was the news that the Bucs (17-3, 12-3) had passed Southern Conference nemesis Georgia Southern in the standings after the Eagles lost on consecutive days to Western Carolina and Chattanooga.
Currently, ETSU is tied with Western Carolina in the loss column for second place behind 13-1 College of Charleston, whom it beat in September and will play again on Sunday.
“We have a second chance right now,” said Ciskowski, whose 12 kills and 14 digs helped assure her team would not be amongst those Goliath’s that fell last weekend.
The other senior, Cavanaugh, showed a Brooks Gym audience one final time why she deserves a place amongst the greatest in a long line of ETSU setters by putting up another 49 assists.
“She’s definitely a special player,” Webb said. “You do not have success as a team without leadership.”
Indeed, the seniors were counted on to help lead the team out of an early hole dug by a blistering Terrier effort in game one, which worked in tandem with some Buc pacifism.
“We came out with a not so aggressive attitude,” freshman Natalie Atzinger said.
Atzinger, however, proved a key to her team’s recovery, as she provided continued strong middle play, leading the Bucs with 16 kills.
Outside hitter Kate Steidle was also an offensive force, with 10 kills, but paced the Bucs defensively with 17 kills.
Yet as the Bucs wrapped up a 10-1 home season and a 6-2 October, Carey Cavanaugh’s assist on Amber Ciskowski’s match-ending kill clearly signified that the theme of the day was to bid a fond farewell.
“It’s bittersweet,” Atzinger said. “It’s been an honor (to play with Cavanaugh and Ciskowski).
“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Ciskowski said immediately after the match.
Cavanaugh echoed that sentiment, and characterized the events of Sunday as the “closing of another chapter of my life.”
She still has room for quite an epilogue, however, as one of the conference’s leaders in assists and digs looks to add to her accolades with a third all-conference selection in as many seasons and possibly even a conference player-of-the-year award.
To do that, however, Cavanaugh will have to pilot the Bucs through a five-game road swing, beginning 6 p.m. Saturday at The Citadel. Less than 24 hours later, the Bucs will take on nearby College of Charleston.
Though, with the exception of the Cougars, the Bucs will not face a team with a superior record the remainder of the regular season, they plan to treat the remainder of the season, which includes tournament-like scheduling, meaning tight scheduling in unfamiliar gyms, as a tune-up for the conference tourney, to be held Nov. 16-18 in Greensboro.

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