CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Buccaneer volleyball team begins the season 1-1 after competing in two matches on day one of the Furman Invite tournament.
 
In their first match up of the tournament, the Bucs took on the host of event, the Furman Paladins. Going into the match up, CSU had an all-time record of 8-19 against the Paladins on the volleyball court.
 
In the first set, the Buccaneers got behind early, but rattled off five consecutive points to tie the match at 14. After Furman went up 21-20, Coach Carry Brown called a timeout and the team regrouped. After the timeout, the Bucs didn't allow the Paladins to score another point, stringing together another five consecutive point effort capped off by a kill from Emily Struckmeyer.

The second set was much less of a close call. CSU dominated from start to finish and went up 2 sets to none versus the hosting Paladins by a score of 25-16. Three of the final four points in the set came at the hands of sophomore, Faith Burch.
 
The third set was less friendly to the Buccaneers as Furman's squad looked reignited. The Paladins' early lead was too much for CSU to chip away, and the set resulted in favor of Furman, 25-20.
 
The Bucs had the opportunity to close out the match in the fourth set and they did just that, defeating the home team 25-13.
 
After picking up their first official win of the season, CSU suited back up hours later to take on the Charlotte 49ers.
 
The 49ers came out of the gates hot in each of the match's three sets. Sweeping the Bucs: 25-18, 25-22, and 25-22. A big moment for one of Carry Brown's sophomores did come out of this match though. Faith Burch not only broke two of her own career highs in the Furman game (9 kills and 10 points), but in the second match of the day against Charlotte, she broke both records again (11 kills and 11 points).
 
Two more of the Bucs' top scorers had historical days. Sophia Kluska broke three of her own career highs in kills (13), points (15.5), and digs (13) in the match up against Furman. Emily Struckmeyer also broke her own career highs in kills (10) and points (13.5).
 
CSU will compete in their final match of the Furman Invite event tomorrow morning at 10 AM against UTRGV. Live stats and updates from the match can be found using the link below.