JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 25, 2019) —The ETSU volleyball team saw themselves on the wrong side of a 2-0 match on Friday evening and were unable to complete a comeback to beat the Furman Paladins. The Bucs were handed their first loss in conference play.

With the loss ETSU falls to 17-4, (8-1 SoCon) and Furman improves to 5-15, (5-4 SoCon).  

Set 1 (25-18 Furman): Just like the first time these two teams met, the Paladins took the first frame. Furman hit just .162, but 10 errors for the Bucs prove costly as the Paladins took the first set 25-18.

Set 2 (25-21 Furman): The second set started off close until the Paladins went on a 5-0 run to hold a 13-8 lead. The Bucs began to inch back but were able to come within five. Olivia Cunningham (Knoxville, Tenn.) came off the bench in the second set and recorded six kills and five digs in the second frame.

Set 3 (25-16 ETSU): The Bucs hit .471 in the third frame to bring them back into the contest. ETSU led from the beginning, hosting an 8-4 lead. The Paladins were unable to cut in the Bucs’ advantage as ETSU had a 5-0 run and a 4-0 run late in the set. Cunningham and Lauren Hatch (Homewood, Ill.) combined for 11 kills in the set.

Set 4 (25-15 ETSU): ETSU took their momentum from the third frame into the fourth. Hatch and Cunningham continued to dominate with 12 kills and 10 digs between the two Bucs. Like the third, ETSU took the lead early and never let go. The Bucs held a 9-5 advantage and ultimately held a five-point lead throughout the majority of the set until the Bucs ended on a 7-2 run. An ace from Cunningham and a kill from Kaela Massey (Brentwood, Tenn.) put the set away.  

Set 5 (15-10 ETSU): The fifth set was back and forth until the Paladins called timeout down 9-8 after a 3-0 ETSU run. After the timeout the two teams alternated points to knot the set up at 10 points apiece. The Paladins closed out the match on a 5-0 run to defeat the Bucs three sets to two.

Key stats:

• Hatch had a career day with 21 kills to finish with a .268 hitting percentage. She completed her double-double with 17 digs.
• Cunningham came off the bench and totaled 21 kills in four sets. She was the only other Buc to complete a double-double. The freshman tallied 16 digs and two aces.
• Marija Popovic (Belgrade, Serbia) controlled the back row for the Blue and Gold with 22 digs to tie for a match-high. She was two assists shy of a double-double.
• The Paladins had a double-block on Kaela Massey (Brentwood, Tenn.) throughout the majority of the match, but Massey was able to hit .389 with nine kills on 18 swings. The senior was tied for a match-best with three aces.
• Lundyn Coffman (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Sara Esposito (Venizia, Italy) combined for 11 kills. Esposito led the squad with four blocks (one solo).
• Emily Arnold (Louisville, Ky.) continued to thrive quarterbacking the offence with 47 assists. She finished the match with four kills and no attacking errors.

Inside the numbers:

• With her third kill in the match, Massey set a new personal season-high. She now has 235 this season, which leads the team.
• Hatch previously recorded 15 kills in five matches this season. Her 17 digs tied her career-high set at UNCG.
• ETSU finished with 60+ kills in back-to-back matches for the first time this season. The last time they accomplished the feat was at the beginning of September last year.
• The Bucs are now 4-3 in five-set matches.

The Bucs are back home tomorrow to face UNCG at 3 p.m.

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