UNA Volleyball has made it to the ASUN Volleyball Championship for the second year in a row. The tournament style championship will take place in Fort Myers, Fla., on Nov. 21 through Nov. 23.
In 2023, the program made it to the championship for the first time in program history as a Division I team. Unfortunately, the team fell short in the first round of play. This year, however, with more hunger and determination, they are prepared to fight their way to the final championship game.
Coach Tristan has his eye on winning the first round, pushing for more firsts in program history. He said winning games is more of an “expectation” this year, rather than solely making it to the conference.
One of his goals since becoming head of the program has been to always push for progress, but his approach is to manage one game at a time.
In order to determine what seed the team will be in the championship, they had to battle against Bellarmine and Eastern Kentucky University.
Against Bellarmine, UNA won the second and fourth sets before falling short in the fifth set.
Each set that UNA lost was separated by either two or three points, proving a feat of determination from the Lions.
Senior Katy Floyd led the team in kills, earning a total of 25. Graduate Student Jasmine Brooks followed closely at 14 kills. These were made possible by freshman Kinslee McGowan’s 44 assists, aided by freshman Audrey Small’s 17 digs.
Despite having less errors than their opponents, the Lions fell short.
They next played against EKU on Nov. 16, losing all three sets. Brooks secured 12 kills, followed by freshman Reese Ricketts’ 11.
McGowan set up 18 assists, and senior Elif Ozsoy gave 9.
Sophomore Olivia Fenoff earned 6 digs, Small with 5, and both Floyd and McGowan earned 4.
As a result of the weekend, the Lions secured the No. 7 seed for the ASUN Championship. They will take on the No. 2 seed, Lipscomb on Nov. 21.
The students and staff at UNA send their support to the team for this upcoming weekend, hoping for a program’s first of winning it all.
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Volleyball prepares to take on the ASUN Conference Championship
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Tristan Gregory, Arts and Entertainment Editor
Tristan Gregory is a sophomore from Alabaster, Alabama. She is currently working towards a bachelor's degree in psychology and a minor in criminology. She started as a volunteer writer before moving to staff and is now the Arts and Entertainment editor.
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