The Lady Cavs made a promise to each other to keep each other’s spirits up and to never give up during their match last Thursday against the five-time defending Pennsylvania Athletic Conference champions, Eastern University.
The Lady Cavs kept it close despite losing the first game 30-20, proving to themselves that they had the ability to beat Eastern. However, going into the second game, senior Teresa Holland felt as though the nerves from the first game came back to haunt them in the second game.
Eastern won the second game 30-8.
“That second loss set the pace for the last game. It’s hard to come back from being down 2-0, especially against a team as talented as Eastern,” Holland said. Eastern defeated the Lady Cavs in the third game, 30-12.
Eastern remains undefeated in the PAC.
The loss brings the Lady Cavs overall record to 8-13 and 2-7 in the PAC.
Holland said that the team is proud that they managed to stick with the number one league. “We started out nervous, but we were able to bring it together in the end. Alissa Smith showed strong leadership throughout the match,” Holland said.
The Lady Cavs received help defensively with big blocks by Kristen Boone and Amanda White.
“We all went into the game pumped and psyched that we would come out on top. We played well as a team, but I think we got down on ourselves after the first match,” White said.
The Lady Cavs had a slow start in the second game and were never able to fully regain the momentum from the first game. “We got really heady and stopped communicating. Once we reached that level, it was downhill,” Holland said.
The first match did give the Lady Cavs confidence for its next match and confidence going into next season. After the match, coach Tricia Arnold was disappointed, but told the team that it was stepping stone and not to dwell on it.
Holland feels as though the Lady Cavs have only been improving and will only continue to get better. The team is proud that they were able to keep pace with the number one team in the league. “Beating Eastern is like a dream. They are a remarkable team, and to beat them would not only surprise them, but the whole league,” Holland said. “We are a really young team, there are so many talented freshmen on this team as well upperclassman. Our time may not have been this year, but I guarantee it will come within the next couple of years,” Holland said.
The Lady Cavs finished out its regular season with a loss to Cedar Crest on Thursday, Oct. 31.