The first SoCon match of the season for the Bucs’ volleyball team was a success as they defeated the Furman Paladins 3-1 (24-26, 28-26, 25-22, 25-23) in Greenville, South Carolina.
“I’m super proud of them, and they do a great job of working as a team,” said head coach Benavia Jenkins. “Tonight was a tough match. Furman came out and did some really great things and It was really hard for us to stop them, but we tried our best to be as steady on defense as possible.”
During the first set, the Paladins came out on top with an 18-15 lead. The Paladins forced the Bucs into a timeout when the opponents took a 3-0 advantage. When the Bucs came out of the time out, they served it back to the Paladins with a 24-22 lead.
During the second set, senior Kaela Massey (Brentwood, Tennessee) grabbed back-to-back aces after the Bucs scored four points off of two kills. The Paladins took the lead 13-12, but the Bucs ended up with the set win as well due to the fourth kill of the match from freshman Olivia Cunningham (Knoxville, Tennessee).
The third set was tied at 16 until the Bucs came out on top yet again 25-22.
The fourth and final set was another successful one for the Bucs, where they took the lead early on in the set for the first time in the match. After it started looking good for Furman, a kill delivered by Cunningham settled the match in favor of the Bucs.
“We’re number one in the conference right now, so we are increasing the ranking by winning,”said freshman Emily Arnold (Louisville, Kentucky), who had a career high of 50 assists during the match. “It feels great, we’re really excited for this weekend.”
Arnold was also just named Center of the Week.
“It feels awesome,” said Arnold. “I didn’t think it would come this early, but with hard work anything can happen and my teammates have made me successful this weekend.”
The Bucs faced UNC-Greensboro the following day, winning 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 31-29). The Bucs now have a conference record of 2-0 and are 11-3 overall.
The Bucs head off to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they will face the Mocs for the third game in the SoCon season on Fri., Oct. 4, at 6 p.m.
