After opening up Sun Belt Conference play on the road last weekend in Louisiana, the Georgia Southern Eagles (8-9) (1-1) look to keep pace with Coastal Carolina in the East division with conference matchups against conference foes South Alabama (9-6) (0-2) and Troy (6-11) (0-2).

Last weekend

The Eagles fell to Louisiana Monroe (7-12) (2-0) Friday night in a 3 set match that seen the Eagles commit seven hitting errors. The Eagles were led by junior outside-hitter Cathrine Murray who had eight kills, one block, and one dig. Redshirt senior Katie Bange once again provided valuable production posting seven kills, 13 assists and one ace.

Saturday night the Eagles bounced back from Friday night against Louisiana Lafayette in a 5-set thriller that seen the Eagles even their conference record. After going up 2-0, the Eagles dropped sets three and four by a combined five points. In the deciding set the Eagles were down 13-11 and after being faced with three match points, they fought off Lafayette to earn the 23-21 win. Katie Bange led the Eagles with a career-high 23 kills, six blocks, 31 assists and 25 digs. Sophomore Lauren Reichard posted 14 kills and seven blocks against the Cajuns while redshirt junior Megan Chevalier had 16 kills.

Bange, who has clearly been on a hot stretch of games offensively lately, said that she could still do some work to improve her defense while crediting her recent offensive performances to the rest of the team for creating good looks for her and Kendra Koetter for setting her.

Head Coach Dustin Wood said that he was proud of the way the team bounced back from the loss Friday night and found a way to win a close, hard-fought on both sides match.

“We are looking forward to getting home and playing our first two conference matches next weekend in Hanner. We are hoping our crowd is back and loud, which really helps the team,” Wood said about being back in Hanner where the Eagles are (6-2).

“It’s always tough to play on the road, so we’re really excited to be back home. It’s great having our fans right there and we live when they heckle the other team,” Murray said about being back at home.

Coming Up

The Eagles are back in Hanner Fieldhouse for the first time in 17 days Friday night as they face off against South Alabama at 6:30 p.m. and will be back it again the next night against Troy Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. Both programs fell to UT Arlington and Texas State last weekend and seek to gain ground in the Sun Belt Conference against the Eagles and “that team from Atlanta.” With no Georgia Southern football this weekend, supporting the Eagles in Hanner looks to be a great way to spend the weekend.

By Dakota Flake