This weekend the Bucs volleyball team competed in back-to-back matches on Oct. 25 against Furman University and Oct. 26 against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Going into the first match against Furman, the Bucs were ahead in the conference 8-0 with Furman 4-4. The team fought their hardest against the Paladins but fell to them in the fifth set (18-25, 19-25, 25-16, 25-15, 10-15). This brought the team to their first loss of the conference season.
“We knew coming out the first half of the season 8-0 that we had a target on our back,” said senior Kaela Massey (Brentwood, Tennessee). “We weren’t as consistent as we have been, so it showed and exposed our weaknesses.”
With a big crush on Friday night, the team had to come out strong and prepared for Saturday’s game. With their new conference score being 8-1 the Bucs took on the Spartans, who have a conference record of 2-7.
The Buccaneers defeated the Spartans in three sets. The first set breezed by with a score of 25-13. When the second set came around the team had to fight to stay in the lead, but they finished the set with a score of 26-24 and came through to win the third set 25-16 taking the game.
“We talked about serving very aggressive, that’s one of our strengths that we do really well in practice,” said head coach Benavia Jenkins.
Freshman Lauren Hatch (Homewood, Illinois) and Massey logged double-digit kills at 12 and 11, while freshman Olivia Cunningham (Knoxville, Tennessee) finished the game with nine kills.
“Today’s match was really good and clean volleyball,” said Cunningham. “We had to come out strong and perform well even though they fought us hard.”
The Buccaneers play Nov. 1 against Mercer in Brooks Gym at 6 p.m.
