The UNA volleyball team lost their final two home games against Shorter University and Lee University on Nov. 15 and Nov. 16.

Shorter defeated the Lions in four sets on Friday, Nov. 15.

The Nov. 16 match against Lee was senior day for lone senior Hope Rayburn. The Lions fell in straight sets.

Rayburn did not start thinking about the fact that it was her final home game until late in the match, she said.

“At first, I wasn’t really thinking about that, I was just thinking about playing,” she said. “Toward the end of the match, it started to hit me that I don’t have many games left and this is the last time I will ever play here. It is kind of hard.”

Head Coach Stephanie Radecki is proud of how much Rayburn has grown in her program, she said.

“It is funny, it feels like yesterday that I was sitting in this gym with her parents trying to get her to come here,” Radecki said. “She is a little Southern girl from Springville, and she has grown up a lot and I am very proud of what she has accomplished. She is very talented in a lot of areas. It is going to be sad to see her go.”

Rayburn was honored after the match with a standing ovation from the 222 fans that were inside Flowers Hall.

The Lions will be competing in the Gulf South Conference Tournament on the campus of the University of West Florida Nov. 22 to 24.

“I think we are talented enough to win,” Rayburn said.

Despite heading into the tournament with a six-game losing streak, the Lions have shown they can hang with the other GSC teams, Radecki said.

“We are (good enough,) even though we lost this weekend, I think we did a lot of really good things,” Rayburn said. “(Coach Radecki) even pointed out last night that even though we lost, we did a lot of great things and we kind of made a push to getting better and that is great heading into the tournament.”

Radecki is confident that UNA has the talent to compete at the tournament, she said.

“The great thing about tournaments is that anything can happen and I think athletically, we stack up with many of the teams in the conference,” she said. “I mean the record doesn’t show that, but the talent’s there it just takes a long time to get used to playing with each other.”

With six days off, the Lions will work on their offense, Radecki said.

“I think we need to work on hitting out of system,” she said.

UNA has worked on hitting out of system all year but still struggles with getting into position when the ball is mishit, Radecki said.

“We, as hitters, need to work on lining our feet up and getting better swings,” she said. “I think our defense stepped it up this weekend and that helps us a lot to get more swings and more opportunities.”

The No. 7 seeded Lions will play No. 2 seeded Valdosta State University at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22.