The EMU Women’s Volleyball team fought hard in a home game against Shenandoah University on Thursday, April 15. However, the Royals ultimately fell to the SU Hornets in all three matches of the game.

Third-year middle-hitter Heather Phelps felt that the Royals came into the game with a competitive mindset and lots of energy. After a rough start to the first match wherein the Hornets gained a large lead over the Royals, the Royals fought hard to catch up. However, two swift SU kills and an attack error at the fault of the Royals gave SU the victory in the first match. The final box score was 25-21. 

EMU Head Women’s Volleyball Coach Casey Steinbrecher said that the team was able to pass well throughout the match. Steinbrecher also highlighted first-year opposite-hitter Paris Hutchinson and third-year middle-hitter Andrea Troyer as key contributors to the Royals’ attack. 

The second match seemed to be in favor of the Royals at the beginning. EMU kills by Hutchinson, as well as several SU errors, gave EMU an early lead of 9-5 over the Hornets. Phelps said, “During the game against Shenandoah, my team worked hard to get good serve receive passes to allow us to run a strong offense. It was nice to see that the hard work we put into serve receives that week at practice paid off.”

As the second match progressed, the Royals lost momentum and began to trail the Hornets. A few attack and handling errors and two final kills from SU’s second-year outside-hitter Kate Poppo and second-year setter Caitlyn Houck settled the game with a final box score of 25-22 in favor of SU.

The Hornets overtook the Royals in the third and final match with a final box score of 25-17. Phelps said, “Moving forward, my team and I hope to improve our blocking. If we work hard to become a strong blocking team, it will make it harder for teams to beat us defensively.”

Steinbrecher said that the Royals can work on small details to improve in games moving forward. Steinbrecher said, “We’re still learning the finer points of playing the game. We liken it to playing a chess match. We need to recognize patterns in our opponent’s performances and anticipate what might happen next.” 

A few days later, the Royals did indeed show improvement in the details, putting up an impressive effort against the Washington & Lee Generals, who were ranked number one in the conference. The Royals went head to head with the Generals in a match that ended in a 34-32 victory for the Generals. 

Phelps is a transfer student from Richard Bland College, where she previously played volleyball. Phelps said, “I was nervous at first to be put on a new team, but everyone was so welcoming and quickly became some of my best friends.” Phelps feels that the relationships between her and her teammates are something she will take away from this season. 

The Royals look to earn another win over Randolph-Macon College on April 25 at 2 p.m. Visit emuroyals.com to watch the live-streamed game.