Friday night the Lady Buccaneers took on the Kennesaw State Owls in Brooks Gymnasium.
The Lady Bucs are ahead of Kennesaw by only one spot in the A-Sun Conference as of Oct. 3, so it was possible that this could have been a tight game.
The team proved there is a reason they are ahead in the rankings. They played three strong matches to beat the Owls in less than two hours.
Freshman middle blocker, McKayla Barber had an amazing game; she is very strong at the net and had many kills throughout the first set and the entire match.
A quick set in the middle to Barber gave the Bucs a burst of energy and the score 23-19.
Barber and sophomore Lauren Baufield had a strong block to win the first set 25-19.
Barber started out the second set with another strong kill from the middle.
Setter Whitney Cogburn tricked the Owls by dumping the ball with her left hand and a hard swing. ETSU then started to allow Kennesaw to catch up 9-8.
During this low scoring time, ETSU hit many balls out.
Many points were scored because of so many side outs in this second match.
The match started to become more intense with a long rally, Baufield had a great dig with a very controlled back row hit from freshman Courtney Cotter.
Then a huge block from sophomore Erin Ryan and freshman Mallory Kiley that hit the Kennesaw player gave the fans and the Lady Bucs that extra energy to beat the Owls 25-23.
Outside hitter Baufield began the final match with a strong kill, then middle Barber with another strong quick from the middle. Junior Amanda Youell served an ace to make the score 14-8, Bucs favor.
Upon substitution, freshman Jamie Stancliff immediately had two kills from the right side to make it game point. The rally for game point went back and forth at least three times until finally ETSU took the match 25-17.
The Kennesaw libero was not happy with the final call, nevertheless the Lady Bucs took the win. The next home match is Oct. 14 against the Lady Vols.

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