The ETSU volleyball team improved its overall record to 15-7 and 6-3 in Southern Conference play on Friday night with a 3-0 win over The Citadel Bulldogs.
This is the second time the Buccaneers have played the Bulldogs this season, beating them 3-1 in September in Charleston, South Carolina.
After Friday’s match, the Bulldogs dropped to 7-18 and 0-8 in the conference. ETSU is currently third in the SoCon standings behind UT-Chattanooga and Furman.
The Bucs fell behind 4-0 very early in the first set and fired back to win it eventually, 25-19.
In the first period, the Buccaneers had a total of five kills and 10 errors.
The Buccaneers were even more dominant in the next two sets, winning them 25-11 and 25-17.
In the second set, ETSU had a total of seven kills and 17 errors.
ETSU had a total of 12 team blocks in the match, while The Citadel only had six.
“I thought that winning in three sets was a reflection of all of the hard work they have done,” said coach Lindsey Devine. “We realized last week that we had some things to work on in practice, and the girls responded well.”
Khadijah Wiley set a new career high with ten blocks in the match. Wiley also had 10 kills, giving her a double-double.
“We worked really hard on it in practice this week, so I knew coming in that was a big focus for us, and just tried to do the best of my ability tonight and it showed,” said Wiley.
The Citadel’s Moriah Smith was the leader in the Southern Conference in kills coming into the match against ETSU. The Buccaneers held her to just four the entire match, with seven errors.
“We focused on the fact that she really liked to go short cross, so we just took her cross every time she swung,” said ETSU’s Mariah McPartland.
Hailey Aguilar led the team in digs with nine, while the entire ETSU team had a total of 42 digs.
The Citadel had a total of 17 kills and 39 digs in the match.
Samantha Espy led the Bulldogs in digs with 10, and they had three players with four kills. The Bulldogs had a total of 10 blocks in the match.
“We served well in sets two and three, which put a lot of pressure on their center,” said Devine. “That makes it easier on our block when we know where the ball is going early, and that was because our serve picked up in those sets.”
The Bucs also played Western Carolina University last weekend, losing that match 3-2.
The team’s next match will be against the Furman Paladins on Wednesday night.
The Bucs played Furman for the first time this season on September 25, losing 3-0.
This Saturday, ETSU will travel to Macon, Georgia, to take on the Mercer Bears.
The Southern Conference Tournament will be held Nov. 21-23 in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
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