Box Score
TAMPA, Fla. - The Eckerd Volleyball squad (20-12) saw its 2009 season draw to a disappointing close on Friday night, falling to the top-seeded Tampa Spartans (30-2) by a final tally of 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-11) at Tampa's Bob Martinez Center.
The Tritons' best chance to make some noise came in the second set as an attack error by the Spartans made it 22-19 in favor of Tampa after they had led 20-15 but the home team won three of the next four points, clinching the set, 25-20.
Overall, the Tampa offense hit a blistering .409 as SSC Player of the Year Melissa Vanderhall paced the Spartans with 16 kills and .536 attack percentage. Eckerd, meanwhile, could only muster a .102 attack percentage but, according to Head Coach Courtney Draper, the Tritons' issues went deeper than just a lack of punch on offense.
"We went into the game saying that we had to do two things to win: pass the serve well and serve [Tampa] tough. We're usually pretty good at those two things but we were weak at that tonight," Draper said.
Despite a total six serve reception errors, four service errors and no aces further illustrating Draper's point, what really upset her the most was her team's effort in what was the last career match for
Lydee Benoit,
Megan Golovkin, and
Allegra Shaw.
"After tonight, the freshmen and sophomores get to think about next year," a visibly upset Draper said, "but this was a tough way for our seniors to leave."
"Lydee could not have done anymore tonight. Tampa knew she was our best hitter, they commit blocked her all night and she still managed to get nine kills and hit a .412. I'm just really lucky to have coached her."
Benoit, the program's all-time kills leader, graduates with a total of 1,747 kills, 588 more than any player in program history.
"I also felt like Megan made good decisions [with her sets]," Draper stated, "but she didn't have a lot of options with our passing the way it was."
Benoit led the Tritons with nine kills while
Hallie Ward amassed 11 digs and Golovkin tallied 16 set assists.
Taylor Manning had the Tritons' lone block.
