Bucs Become The First SoCon Team With 10 Wins on the Season

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (Sept. 27, 2019) – ETSU’s volleyball team defeated the Furman Paladins 3-1 (24-26, 28-26, 25-22, 25-23) to kick off conference play on Friday night. After falling behind 1-0 after the first frame, the Blue and Gold capitalized by hitting .350 over the course of the final three sets.  

With the victory, ETSU improves to 10-3 (1-0 SoCon) as Furman falls to 0-12 (0-1 SoCon).

Set 1 (26-24 FU): Both teams alternated points throughout the beginning of the first frame before the Bucs took an 18-15 lead. Furman went on a 3-0 run to force an ETSU timeout at 18-18. The Blue and Gold came out of the timeout to take a 24-22 lead to cause a Furman timeout. The Paladins forced a set point of their own out of the timeout with a 25-24 lead before taking the frame 26-24. The Paladins were strong at the net with five blocks including four solo in the set.  

Set 2 (28-26 ETSU): The second set was knotted up at four before the Bucs scored four points off of two kills and then back-to-back aces from Kaela Massey (Brentwood, Tenn.). The Paladins struck back to take a 13-12 lead of their own before the Blue and Gold jumped on a 3-0 run. Like the first frame, the Bucs held a 24-23 lead and Furman came back to hold a set point of their own. The Blue and Gold fought off two Paladin match points to give them a match point of their own at 27-26. Olivia Cunningham (Knoxville, Tenn.) logged her fourth kill of the match to give the Bucs the set, 28-26! 

Set 3 (25-22 ETSU): The third frame was back-and-forth until the Paladins held a 9-6 lead. The Blue and Gold battled back with a 3-0 run to bring the match to nine points apiece. The match was tied at 16 until the Bucs went on another 3-0 run to grab a 19-16 lead to force a Furman timeout. The Bucs held a 24-20 lead, to ultimately take the set 25-22 and hold a 2-1 advantage in the match.

Set 4 (25-23 ETSU): For the first time in the match, ETSU took the lead early at 10-5. The Paladins began a small comeback before ETSU converted on a block-assist from Massey and Lundyn Coffman (Nolensville, Tenn.) to take a 16-12 lead and cause a Furman timeout. The Paladins came back to cut their deficit to two at 23-21. Furman got within one at 24-23 before a kill by Cunningham put the match away!  

“It’s a great win for our girls and I’m proud of them,” said Benavia Jenkins, head coach. “It’s always a team effort, tonight the team did a great job of rallying behind our hitters and knowing where to be on the court.”

Key stats:

• Massey (12), Sara Esposito (Venezia, Italy) (13), Cunningham (14) and Lauren Hatch (Homewood, Ill.) (15) and all logged more than 10 kills. Massey led the way with a .370 attack clip. Esposito and Cunningham hit .360 and .312 respectively.
• Coffman was two kills away from joining the crew with 10 and finished with eight kills on 17 attempts for a .353 hitting percentage.
• Emily Arnold set a career-high with 50 assists for the Blue and Gold and finished one dig away from a double-double.  
• Marija Popovic logged 17 assists and six helpers in three sets of action.
• Furman’s Courtney Hoffman led the match with 16 kills on 20 swings for a .750 attack clip.  
• The two teams combined for 15 aces and 20 blocks. ETSU was led by Massey’s four aces behind the service line. Cunningham had a match-high with three solo blocks, she joined Massey with a team-high four total denials at the net.

Inside the numbers:

• Four Bucs had ten or more kills in a match for the first time since Oct. 9, 2018. A total of eight players between the two teams had 10 or more.
• Arnold’s 50 assists are the first time a Buc has hit the half-century mark since Alyssa Kvarta had 57 helpers at Samford on Oct. 27, 2018.
• ETSU was outhit and won the match for the third time this season (.310-.305 today).
• Hatch tied her previous career-best with 15 kills, the first time in nearly a month she’s hit that mark. 
• The Blue and Gold have started 1-0 in conference action for the third straight season.

The Bucs continue conference play tomorrow at UNCG. First serve is slated for 5 p.m. Fans can watch live on ESPN3.

ETSU fans wanting to receive Buccaneer news, score updates, in-game promotions and much more sent to their mobile device can do so by signing up for “Buc Updates.” Click here to sign up today!

For more information on Buccaneer volleyball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the volleyball page. Also, like us on Facebook at follow us on Twitter and Instagram @ETSUVolleyball.