BUCKHANNON, West Virginia - With the weekend's wins behind them now, the Salem Tigers volleyball team headed down to Upshur County this evening to face off with an old rival, namely the Bobcats of West Virginia Wesleyan. In the first of what will be three contests between the Tigers and Bobcats, Salem could not pull off the win on West Virginia Wesleyan's home court, and fell 3-0.
For the first set, Salem took some shots early to take a slim lead behind kills from Hailey Haynes, Jocelyn Rios, and Noemi Combi. However, Wesleyan answered right back to take control of the set 10-4. From there, the Tigers had a lot of catching up to do, and made a valiant effort. Yet, Salem dropped set one to the Bobcats 25-16.
In the next frame, Salem fell behind early, but rallied behind strong play from Makenna Long to level the score at 4-4. The Bobcats answered the Tiger rally with one of their own, and quickly established a tight advantage. Salem kept things close throughout the set, but ultimately fell 25-21 in set two.
With their back against the wall for set three, Salem had to throw everything they had at the Bobcats to claw their way back into the contest. They did just that early on, and kept things tight behind some solid work from Sydney Kopshina and Mikaela McEvoy to bring the set to 12-12. However, from there, the Bobcats' experience won out over the young Salem squad, and the Tigers dropped set three 25-15.
Despite the loss, there were still some areas of improvement for the Tigers on the stats sheet. Makenna Long continued her strong debut season as a Tiger by leading the team in kills with 8 and digs with 9. Mikaela McEvoy logged 3 service aces for the Tigers in the contest, and Arianna Parsley added 15 assists for Salem.
Salem will have a quick chance to get some revenge on the Bobcats after tonight's loss this coming weekend. The Tigers are set to compete in Bluefield State's Big Blue Classic on September 13th and 14th, and the first game of that event will be against these same West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats on September 13th at 2 PM. Salem will also face Shorter, Erskine, and the host Bluefield State in that 2-day event.
