STATESBORO- Playing at Hanner Fieldhouse for the first time in 2024, Georgia Southern volleyball (3-1) kicked off its home slate with a sweep of Maryland Eastern Shore (2-2) on Thursday.

"It was a good way to open up at home, proud of the team," head coach Chad Willis said. "Total team effort and got to put a lot of people in today, which was nice. Looking at the numbers, our goal in the match was to play clean. I think we did a really nice job of that. I thought our service pressure picked up after the first set, which was one of our goals all week, and it was a good start to the weekend."

The Hawks battled the Eagles hard early, but GS started to pull away later. Reagan Barth's fourth kill put the Eagles up 18-15.

Barth had two more kills to go up 21-17, followed by Jillian Gray and Lydia Seymour adding spikes to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead after hitting .381 in the opening stanza. Reigning SBC Defensive Player of the Week Ashlyn Lovett recorded 10 digs in the opening set.

The Eagles kept the foot on the gas in the second set. Claire Smith and Kayla Knowles each recorded their first kills as an Eagle, and Logan Jones' back-to-back service aces capped off a 5-0 run and a 23-14 lead. Another kill by Barth closed out the Hawks 25-15.

GS would not be denied the win in the third frame. Down 3-1 very early, Smith chipped in a pair of block assists, and another Jones ace gave the Eagles a 9-2 run, and more importantly, a 14-7 lead. Paige Powers sealed the set and game on an ace as the Eagles won 3-0 and 25-17.

Barth had nine kills and hit .364, becoming the first Eagle to lead the team in a win with less than ten kills since Sep. 12, 2023. Powers and Gray both chipped in eight, while Sam Bowron added six.

Kirsten Barrett had 30 assists to go along with two kills and two digs, and Lovett's 16 digs once again led the way.

"We really honed in on our defense. We like to be a gritty and hungry team on that side of the ball," Lovett said. "Right now, we're first in the Sun Belt in digs per set as a team, and we really wanted to keep that up this weekend. It's my job to lead us in that category and to make sure that we're always going all out for it, and I like to lead by example by doing that." 

The Eagles hit .268 as a team and recorded 44 digs to just one error. The team limited UMES to a .135 hitting percentage in the win.

GS has a day off before knocking heads with Clemson to close out the GATA Challenge on Saturday.