Unfortunately for the Georgia Southern Eagles, the Carolina Classic became just more of the same after another three straight losses, two being against top 25 teams.

VCU (1-3 L)

Usually, when one usually looks at the statistics for Georgia Southern volleyball, they already know who’s going to be leading the team in kills: Jamie Deratt and Kym Coley. This weekend however, the redshirt freshman Megan Chevalier showed fans what the future of Eagle volleyball is going to look like. Chevalier recorded 16 kills against the Rams, only second to the seasoned Jamie Deratt. This was the only beacon of light in an otherwise bleak affair, as the Eagles only won one set in their first match of the tournament, and it didn’t come until the third set when the Eagles had a 41.7 hitting percentage. This was a much needed increase, as they only had a 3.7 hitting percentage in the set before. Coley had a high hitting percentage the entire match, boasting a 47.4 and leading the team. Junior Kat Minnerly led the team in blocks with fifty, and Avery Stephens, sophomore, led the team in digs. Losing this match brought the Eagles’ record to 0-7.

North Carolina (0-3 L)

Another freshman made their name known as the Eagles went up against the North Carolina Tar Heels at home in Chapel Hill. Cathrine Murray tied Coley for kills with 6, and was second in digs. Kat Minnerly once again led the team in assists with 24, but despite this solid performance, they couldn’t get anything going against the Tar Heels. The first set looked close as they only lost by three, but that was the closest the Eagles were going to be at spoiling the Tar Heels’ chance of shutting out the tournament. Ga. Southern, as a team, never had higher than one percent in any set they lost against North Carolina.

Kentucky (1-3 L)

Ga. Southern took the first set against the 16th ranked Kentucky Wildcats 25-22, but that would be the last set the Eagles would be able to win this entire tournament. Murray didn’t let the fact that she was going up against the 16th best volleyball team in the nation intimidate her as she led her Eagles in kills with 13. This was the first time in her career as an Eagle that she had double digit kills. Coley and DeRatt also had double digit kills. Coley, as usual, led the team with a 47.6 hitting percentage. Ga. Southern stayed competitive through the first two sets, but Kentucky dominated the rest, not losing the lead for the last two sets. In fact, the Wildcats managed to take a 4-0 lead in the third set before the Eagles could even score a point. Another key difference between the first two and last two sets were in the hitting percentage. In the first two sets, the Eagles had hitting percentages higher than 30, but in the last two, they couldn’t manage a hitting percentage higher than one.

If there’s one thing to take away from this imperfect tournament, it’s that Cathrine Murray and Megan Chevalier look like they might be the answer when DeRatt and Coley leave the team. The winless Eagles finally have their home opener at Statesboro High School this Saturday against long time rivals, Appalachian State. Before they come back to Statesboro, they’ll have to travel one more time to Troy, Alabama where they’ll battle their Sun Belt comrade, Troy. This will be their first conference match of the season.