SPARTANBURG, S.C. (Nov. 11, 2023) – The ETSU volleyball team battled but dropped its regular season finale at Wofford on Saturday night in five sets (19-25, 25-16, 25-20, 23-25, 15-7).
Stat Standouts – Brianna Cantrell spearheaded the Buccaneer offense with 19 kills (.349 hitting percentage) in the contest.
Jenna Forster added 14 kills, while
Malgorzata Andersohn tallied yet another double-double with 29 assists and 19 digs. Additionally,
Jasmal Cruz tallied a season-high 24 digs to pace the Buccaneer defense.
Set 1 – ETSU came out swinging in the opening stanza. The Buccaneer offense attacked at a match-high .433 with 15 kills. Cantrell had seven of those kills by herself and did not commit an attack error. With ETSU's offense clicking so well, it ended up taking the opening frame, 25-19.
Set 2 – The momentum swung back to the Terriers in the second. Wofford totaled 17 kills (.293 hitting percentage) and totaled five blocks. Thanks in part to the five blocks, the Terrier defense held ETSU to a .062 hitting percentage in the second. With that disparity in offensive production, Wofford took the second frame, 25-16.
Set 3 – Wofford continued to play well on both sides of the ball in the third. An attack percentage of .414 coupled with another frame of five blocks continued to put pressure on ETSU. ETSU fared better than in the second but the Terriers still came away with the set victory, 25-20.
Set 4 – With ETSU facing a four-set loss, it battled the Terriers in the fourth. Overall, there were five lead changes and the score was deadlocked at 12 different points. The set came to an exciting end as kills from Forster and
Isabelle Iosua late in the frame pushed the match to a fifth set, 25-23.
Set 5 – The match-deciding set began as a back-and-forth one as the score was knotted up at 7-7. However, the Terriers teared off an 8-0 run to finish off the match with a convincing 15-7 win over the Bucs.
Next Up – ETSU, now 5-22 overall and 5-11 in SoCon play, will turn its attention to the SoCon Tournament next week. The Bucs, which drew the No. 8 seed, will match up against No. 9 seed UNC Greensboro in the first round of the tournament on Tuesday. The winner of that match will advance to play top-seeded The Citadel on Friday at 2 p.m. Tuesday's match is scheduled for a 6 p.m. first serve at Brooks Gym.
For more information on Buccaneer volleyball, visit
ETSUBucs.com and click on the volleyball tab.
