The Fred DeLay Gymnasium was filled with friendly faces and excited cheers Tuesday, October 25, as Union volleyball faced Shorter University. The student bleachers were broken, forcing everyone to conjoin behind the scores table and benches seemingly making the crowd even louder with every point Union earned.
Union lost the first set even though they kept it close until Shorter gained momentum at the end of the set. Shorter went on an 8-3 run eventually leaving Union behind winning 25-17.
Union lost the second set as well. They stayed ahead of Shorter the entire set until Shorter came back with a 12-4 run, winning the second set 25-23.
“Shorter is a well rounded team,” McKenna Carter, senior public relations major, said. “I think we showed our fight at some points but needed to come out stronger right from the beginning.”
Union won the third set, sending an eruption through the gym. It was back and forth throughout the set, even trading points at the end for the match point. Union pulled it out, scoring the last 4 of the final 5 points winning over Shorter, 28-26.
Starting the fourth set, Union got 3 immediate kills and scored the first 5 out of 6 points leaving Union with a comfortable 5-1 lead. Shorter didn’t stay behind long as they began to find holes in Union’s defense, putting them up 20-17. Again, Union stayed close to Shorter as they swapped points at 23-22 and 24-23. Union lost the set, 25-23.
Deja Moorer, senior psychology major, lead the team with 14 kills, only 75 away from 1,000 kills for her career. Hannah Hugely, senior family studies major, led in assists once more with 41 as she just surpassed her 2,000th assist for her career last weekend.
Though the team took a hard loss Tuesday, they have a weekend full of games that their attention is on now.
“That match is behind us now, ” Moorer said. ” We have to focus on this weekend’s upcoming opponents and get the job done then.”