The Lady Bulldogs volleyball team picked up their first Gulf South Conference win on Tuesday against Mississippi College with a dominant three sets to one victory.
It was a back and forth affair during the the first game as Union struggled to keep their serves in bounds. Despite strong defense at the net and a few dazzling digs from Taylor Chiaro, sophomore elementary education major, the Lady Bulldogs dropped the first set 25-23. Chiaro ended the match with an impressive 21 digs. For context, the next leader in digs was Kristen Goggin, sophomore physical therapy major, with 12.
“Taylor Chiaro has been playing phenomenal,” Coach Darrin McClure said. “She’s really just accepted the role that we need from her and I’m very proud.”
Union came out in the second set ready to take care of business. However, Mississippi College kept it close at the start until the Lady Bulldogs built some momentum on a monstrous eight to three run. The key to this run was clearly defense. Union won the second set 25-13.
Union entered the third set with the same mindset as the last and quickly took the lead as Abbie Rahn, sophomore elementary education major, served two aces back to back. Mississippi College would not lose without a fight though, and kept the set to a respectable 25-22 loss.
In the fourth and final set, The Lady Bulldogs began with a phenomenal eight to one run. When the run was broken the team did not relax. In fact, they put in the strongest showing of the night and won the set 25-13 behind some ferocious defense.
“Coach [McClure] came into the locker room with a huge smile on his face,” Rahn said. “He said that we start here and, you know, we had rough start but we got our first [conference] win and we just got to work it out from here.”
The Lady Bulldogs will visit West Georgia and Montevallo before returning home to face West Florida on October 6.