This past Saturday, the Blackburn Women's volleyball team hopped in some vans and took a trip down to Greenville to play their first two conference matches.
The first match of the day was against Webster College, and it had a heartbreaking start. The women struggled to pass up balls, have clean sets, and put the ball away. Overall, the first set was a complete and utter mess. The set ended with the women losing 25-6. Despite the huge loss off the bat, the women refused to give up and figured out what changes they needed to make in order to beat Webster.
In the second set, the women got their passes up and gave their hitters easier chances in order to put the ball away. Despite their efforts, the women still ended up losing the second set, but only by four points.
The third set was not nearly as good as the second set, but the women, as always, refused to give up. They continued to fight for each of the points, but just couldn't prevent enough mistakes from occurring. Outside hitter and freshman, Maria Cline, led to team with kills against Webster, with six kills that game. The third set ended at 17-25 and gave the women their first conference loss of the season.
After the game against Webster, the women had three hours to kill before playing the home team, Greenville. By the time it came to play the Panthers, Blackburn seemed ready for a nap and made it very oblivious on the court.
The warm-up lacked energy and enthusiasm, and this continued throughout the game. The women ended up losing all three sets by very minimal change in the scores. The first set ended at 11-25, the second at 16-25, and the third at 13-25. Once again, Cline led the team with four kills against the overpowering Greenville Panthers.
Taking two losses may not have been the way the women wanted to start off their conference season, but hopefully they will be able to make some changes by the next conference game on Tuesday, September 13th at Westminster College at 7 pm.