Lady Cavs suffer first home blemish against Union

Cody Dalton
Sports Writer

Wise – Union College defeated the UVa-Wise volleyball team, 30-17, 31-29, 30-27, in Appalachian Athletic Conference play on Tuesday.

The loss was the first of the season at Greear Gymnasium. Union (23-7, 12-1) is also the only team to defeat the Cavaliers in the last eight games. They also won a home contest against Wise on Sept. 20, 3-0.

“I think there is a sting of losing the first time on our court this year,” said UVa-Wise coach Steve Dallman. “We have three games to win this week and we can’t let one loss totally get us down.”

Union started the first game on a 7-2 run and gained much need separation from the Cavs in the early going.

Towards the middle of the first, the Cavs would close the gap to 11-9, with two key kills for senior Natasha Viers. She finished the game with 14 kills and five digs.

Leading 15-11, Union would go on a 13-3 run. The Cavaliers fought hard, scoring three straight points, but failed to come back. Union would take the first set.

Different from the first game, the second game would remain close throughout. The largest lead would be only four, where Union led 14-10 towards the middle of the second game. The score remained tied or at most a one point advantage all the way to the end of the game.

After a Cavs timeout and the score tied at 28-28, Viers knocked home a thunderous kill that gave the Cavs a one point advantage. It looked as if the Cavs would tie the contest at a game a piece. Union had other ideas.

A missed hit would tie the game again and the Cavs would mistakenly hit the ball twice, giving Union a 30-29 lead. Finally, Union’s Stephanie Pateman spiked a kill that gave Union the second game. Pateman had 19 kills in the contest, which led all players.

Entering the third game, the Cavs would start off with a 2-0 lead. However for UVa-Wise, Union returned to their dominant ways. They would score six of the next seven points, giving them a 7-3 advantage. The Bulldogs carried this lead through the third game until the end.

With Union leading 22-14, the Lady Cavs knew their fate would be sealed if Union won the game. The Cavs would force Union into six mistakes, allowing them to claw back up to a 22-19 Union advantage.

The game would remain this close until the end of the third game. Unfortunately, the Cavs could only get within two, before finally losing the third game and the match.

UVa-Wise coach Steve Dallman felt let down in his team’s playing ability, despite preparing all week for the game.

“I am disappointed that we didn’t look like we were prepared to play,” Dallman said. “We worked hard all week and I am just disappointed in our hitting, our blocking and everything. To their credit though, they are a great team.

Union coach David Nicholson saw some improvements from his team’s performance in the last few weeks.

“We had been struggling the past few weeks with serving the ball,” Nicholson said. “We did better with that today. Obviously this is a huge win for us. UVa-Wise is a good team and they are third in the conference. We knew this was going to be tough.

Despite winning, Nicholson saw his team gain another step to improving their play on the court.

“When we are serving well, it is tough and it puts pressure on other teams,” Nicholson said. “Defense is something we need to improve though. We are getting better. It was our big Achilles heel last year. I thought we played the net well tonight. There were also a lot of soft blocks that we didn’t cover and we didn’t get up.”

The win keeps Union atop the AAC standings, while the Cavs feel into a tie with King College for third place.