by Taylor Cotie

On October 25, the Greensboro College women’s volleyball team returned to action inside Hanes Gymnasium, welcoming the Southern Virginia Knights. The team hosted a “pink-out” night to help raise support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many faculty and students wore pink during the exciting match. After a nail-biting game, the Pride took down the Knights in a thrilling five-set victory in front of their home crowd. 

In the opening set, the SVU Knights won by a close score of 25-23. Despite the setback, the Pride persevered and won the second and third sets with final scores of 25-21 and 25-19. However, the Knights narrowly edged the Pride 25-22 to take the fourth set. After a suspenseful fifth set, the Pride fought back and won the match 15-10. 

I had the opportunity to speak with Kevin Troup, head coach of the GC women’s volleyball team, on how he believes the team has grown throughout the course of the season. He replied, “This season we played a really tough non-conference schedule in hopes it would prepare us for USA South competition. I believe the team learned from our early defeats that allowing an error to affect the next play, caused teams to go on big runs against us. These young ladies are a resilient bunch and know that they can compete with the best of them. They have matured from match to match and adjusted during games. Ultimately, this has led to our success. They see the value of working hard in practice and how it translates to matches.” 

The GC volleyball team finished their regular season on an exciting note, taking home the second seed in the USA South Athletic Conference. The team competed against the number one seed, Meredith College, on November 4. After a fierce match that went all the way to a fifth set, the Pride unfortunately fell short during the last set with a score of 10-15. 

The first round of the USA South Tournament playoff games began on Tuesday, November 7. In front of their electric home crowd, the Pride defeated the Brevard College Tornadoes in three, advancing them to the semi-finals where they had to face the Southern Virginia Knights.  

On November 9, the Pride garnered a 3-1 win against Southern Virginia University, advancing them to the championship game where they will compete against Meredith College, hoping to capture the USA South conference championship title. This has been the first time in years since the GC women’s volleyball program has advanced this far in the conference tournament.  

The game was held on Saturday, November 11 at Meredith College. Unfortunately, the Pride were unable to capture the USA South Conference Championship with a tough yet competitive 3-2 loss against the Angels. Regardless, this was still a great season by the Pride. They will definitely look to build upon their success and be even better next season.