ETSU volleyball played back-to-back games against Samford and Mercer last weekend.
After two wins at home against Furman and Citadel, the Bucs took the road to Alabama on Friday, Nov. 5, to play against Samford.
“I think it was a huge confidence booster for us, winning those two back-to-back matches. Sometimes in a SoCon conference, you don’t know what you are going to get. It’s about who’s going to show up that weekend,” said Head Coach Benavia Jenkins.
Samford and ETSU played close sets with ETSU, prevailing in the first set (25-23). After being down 11-17 in the first set, graduate student Josannah Vazquez (Mansfield, Texas) and junior Samantha Shafer (Franklin, Tenn.) brought some points to get them back on track along with senior Sara Esposito (Pianiga, Venezia, Italy) and junior Lundyn Coffman (Nolensville, Tenn.). In the posted 17 kills for ETSU in the first set Vazquez was behind six and Shafer knocked out the final three.
ETSU played Samford at Brooks Gym earlier in the season winning 3-1.
“Samford is looking a lot better than they were when we last played them. They had a few of their players injured and just out; so, they are a healthy Samford team now. A team that knows how to win championships, a team that I feel like is probably the calmest team in the conference,” said Coach Jenkins, “I think we are going to be matched up against a very different Samford team than we matched up against a month ago.”
Samford came back to win the next three sets (25-21, 25-20, 26-24), all of which were close matches that the Bulldogs held on to until the end.
Vazquez led the Bucs in kills at Samford with 21 kills, and freshman Caroline Dykes (Flower Mound, Texas) came out with 38 assists.
The team plays another away game against UT Chattanooga on Tuesday, Nov. 9, before coming home on Friday, Nov. 12 for the last game of the regular season and senior night.
