After opening the season with five consecutive losses, the Paladins volleyball team bounced back this week, pulling out wins in three of five matches.
First, the team travelled just down the road to Clemson for the Big Orange Bash, which featured a plethora of Palmetto State teams. Although we dropped tough matches against Winthrop and Clemson, the team got their first win of the season against South Carolina.
Resting during the school week must have paid dividends for the Paladins. The team travelled north this weekend to the Delaware Tournament, hosted by the University of Delaware. There the Paladins downed Sacred Heart and Rutgers before falling in a five-set match to the hosts.
This heartbreaking loss came in the tournament finals, after the Paladins jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the first set. Delaware came back to take the next two sets before going on to take the finals 3-2. Furman had the 6-3 edge in service aces, but it seems Delaware’s 15-9 edge in blocks was the difference maker in this match, as both hitting percentage and digs were nearly identical for the two squads.
Junior Katie Harrell, a defensive specialist for the Paladins, said she has noticed the team’s progression in the early stages of the season.
“We are a young team with a lot of new faces, and good team chemistry isn’t built overnight,” she said. “Our first few games we were trying to understand the way each one of us played individually and how to bring that into a single unit. It took a few games to bring that together, but with each game we became more and more successful, snagging a few wins along the way.”
The team’s first conference match up is Sept. 27 against Chattanooga, but first they will play their home opener on Sept. 18 against Presbyterian. Be sure to get out and support the team as they try to carry the momentum from a successful week into their upcoming matches.