By: Stephen Murphy
With three losses on the road last week, the women’s volleyball team heads back out to play Point University of West Point, Ga. on Thursday.
“We started off very slow, which in some part is due to a really young team,” Bays said addressing last Tuesday’s game against Union College. “However, the last two weeks we have really made steps toward being more mature on the court and looked like a veteran team…Tuesday night we took some steps backward.”
After losing to Union, the lady buffs versed Lindsey Wilson and the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) during a tri-match last Saturday at Lindsey Wilson. Though the lady buffs lost both matches 0-3, Bays said Saturday was a great chance for the team to get “higher-level regional experience.”
Lindsey Wilson is currently ranked 8th in the NAIA National Rankings, though they are a higher ranked team, the lady buffs set forth to accept the challenge.
Two of the biggest offensive players currently are senior Kylie Whaley (Maryville, Tenn.), and sophomore Emilee Linkous (Morristown, Tenn.).
Whaley finished Tuesday’s game against Union with a match high of 18 kills, while Linkous followed behind her with nine kills for the night.
Going into the match their record was 8-15, they now stand at 8-17.
Neither Lindsey Wilson nor UNOH are conference teams.
“Heading into the tri-match the goals were to play with a purpose, play with consistency, to be a team and most importantly have fun,” said Bays. “We have really been going through the motions and we need to make sure we have a purpose for what we do. We need to eliminate errors and really focus on being a team not individuals. We need to have fun after all that is why we play the sport.
Even with a four point streak putting the lady Buffs ahead 17-14 in the third round against UNOH, the women were not able to muster up enough might to pull off a win.
The buffalos will next be seen on the court Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against Point University at West Point, Ga.
milliganstampede
