Massey Breaks Career High Hitting Percentage in Game One

Greensboro, N.C. (Sept. 6, 2019) - The ETSU volleyball team got off to a 2-0 start at the Coastal Carolina Classic after sweeping South Carolina State and Charleston Southern on Friday afternoon. The Bucs improved to 5-0 for the third time in program history.

Game one: ETSU vs Charleston Southern 

ETSU won the battle of the Bucs 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-15) hitting an astonishing .480 throughout the course of the match. After hitting .667 (16-for-21) in the first set, ETSU finished with their best hitting percentage in over a year (.413 vs NIU on Sept. 6, 2019).

Set 1: The first 20 points of the set alternated between the two teams and then ETSU took off. The Blue and Gold began a 9-3 run with kills from five different Bucs. CSU began a short comeback causing an ETSU timeout at 22-16. ETSU scored four out the next six points to secure the first frame 25-18. Olivia Cunningham (Knoxville, Tenn.) led the squad with five kills. Abbie Trantham (Candler, N.C.) and Kaela Massey (Brentwood, Tenn.) both finished with a 1.000 hitting percentage (4-for-4). 

Set 2: ETSU took the momentum from set one and continued to thrive on the court taking the second set 25-16. ETSU had the lead from the beginning once again. Cunningham and Massey continued to shine for ETSU with four and six kills respectively in the set.   

Set 3: The Blue and Gold got off to a hot start once again before CSU started to battle back. The team from South Carolina took their first lead of the match at 9-8 in the third set. Sara Esposito (Venezia, Italy) shined in the middle of the set with back-to-back kills to give ETSU a 14-9 lead. The Blue and Gold finished off the set with a 17-7 run to take the match.

Key stats:

• Massey set her career high with a .684 (14-for-19) hitting percentage. Cunningham was second on the team in the category with 11 kills on 15 attempts (.533).
• Emily Arnold (Louisville, Ky.) tied her career-high set last weekend with 42 assists and added two kills to her line.
• Esposito and Lauren Hatch (Homewood, Ill.) both notched six kills in the match. Esposito had contact with three of the team’s six blocks.
• Sidney Sherrill (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Alyssa Hatley (Church Hill, Tenn.) both saw their first action of the season and proved effective in the third set with one and two blocks respectively. Sherrill smacked down her first career kill.
• ETSU outhit CSU .480 to .099.

Game two: ETSU vs South Carolina State

After a two-hour break, ETSU came back out for their second game of the tournament putting away the S.C. State Bulldogs in three sets (25-16, 29-27, 25-7).

Set 1:

The first set was close until it was knotted up at 10. ETSU went on a 15-6 run to close out the frame to cl a 1-0 lead in the match. The run was led by Trantham who had four digs and Hatch who had back-to-back aces towards the end of the frame. The Bucs finished the set with four aces.

Set 2

Set two started off with the Bulldogs coming out on a 6-1 run. The Bucs came back to tie the match at nine, 10 and 13. Hatley had three consecutive kills to give ETSU a 16-13 advantage. After S.C. State rallied to take a one-point lead, ETSU called a timeout and the final third of the set was back-and-forth. S.C. State held set point over the Bucs when Hatley exploded again smacking the ball down the line to tie the set at 25. She served the final two points of the set and with help from a Cunningham kill, gave ETSU a 29-27 set win and 2-0 advantage.

SET 3

After a 2-1 lead for the Bucs, Sherrill started a service run of eight straight serves which allotted to a 9-2 ETSU lead and they never looked back. The Blue and Gold were led by Cunningham, their freshman outside hitter who had six kills on seven attempts in the frame. The Knoxville, Tenn. native served the final seven points of the match to help the Bucs take the set 25-7. 

Key stats:

• With a .400 attack clip (13-for-25) Hatley led the team in kills and set a career-high in kills, hitting percentage, attempts and digs (4). Cunningham finished just behind the sophomore with 11 kills equaling a .429 clip in two sets.
• Arnold continued to lead the squad with 27 helpers and added three kills to her line. Cherney, Mary Catherine Smith (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), Trantham, Cunningham, Popovic and Hatch also logged assists.
• Sherrill was one of the starting middles for the Blue and Gold and finished 3-for-10 with three aces and three blocks (two solo). On the outside, Hatch finished with five kills on 10 attempts with three aces and three assists. Hatch also led the team with four blocks (two solo). 

Inside the numbers

• ETSU has won 9 sets in a row dating back to last weekend against Jacksonville St. 
• The seven points given up in the third set of game two is the lowest in a 25-point set since 2010. 
• ETSU is off to a 5-0 start for the third time in program history (1987, 2016).
• Cunningham has had double-digit kills in every match she has played in this season (4).
• Sherrill, Hatley and Smith saw their first action of the season today.
• With two more wins today, ETSU is the lone undefeated team in the SoCon.

The Bucs are back in action tomorrow, Sept. 7 to face Coastal Carolina at 2 p.m. to close the tournament.

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