ETSU women’s volleyball team played two games over the last weekend. The first game was against Western Carolina University on Friday, Oct. 22, which resulted in a 3-1 win for the Bucs.
After winning the first set 25-19, WCU won the second set 25-17. The Buccaneers came back to win the third set 25-22, and a tough fought fourth set resulted in a 27-25 score.
Some highlights at the end of the day were graduate student Josannah Vazquez (Mansfield, Texas) ending with 22 kills and senior Sara Esposito (Pianiga Venezia, Italy) with 15 kills. The defense also had a great game with 20+ digs from freshman Caroline Dykes (Flower Mound, Texas) and graduate student Taylor Robers (Sneads, Florida).
After ending WCU’s three-game win streak, the team played UNC Greensboro on Saturday, Oct. 23.
UNCG beat ETSU 3-0 with set scores 26-24, 25-22 and 25-17.
“We showed a lot of improvement, especially with the numbers that we’ve been looking for. Against WCU I feel we had the players that needed to contribute on the court did a really good job,” said head coach Benavia Jenkins. “Against UNCG, just a tough match. We had a huge lead against them, and we just couldn’t execute at the end. That’s just with some growth, and maybe that lack of leadership that we needed in that moment.”
ETSU and UNCG have some of the best offenses in the Southern Conference when looking at statistics.
“Overall, I definitely played better on Friday against Western. It just felt smoother, everything just kind of clicked with the girls. One piece of the puzzle wasn’t enough on Saturday, some things were working, and some things weren’t, and it just didn’t work for us in the end,” said Vazquez.
The Bucs are back home in Brooks Gym this weekend playing Furman on Friday, Oct. 29, and the Citadel on Saturday, Oct. 30.
