Box Score
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – An overpowering offense to the tune of a season-high .443 attacking percentage had the Eckerd College volleyball team cruising on Saturday as it brought down Lynn University in a straight-set sweep by scores of 25-14, 25-16 and 25-13.
Eckerd attacked the Lynn defense at a staggering .559 clip in the third set alone with 20 kills on 34 swings and just one error. The Tritons easily eclipsed their previous high hitting percentage on the season, a .379 mark against Florida Tech (Sept. 14).
Junior
Alex Laton led a trio of Tritons with double-digit kill totals, spiking down 11, while
Lindsay Biggs and
Ali McAlvany each contributed 10.
Senior
Bri Smith dished out 27 assists and had a pair of early kills to go along with two service aces.
On paper, both teams had similar records with the same marks in league play and appeared to be an even matchup. But the Tritons (11-3, 4-2 SSC) never trailed and were dominant in all facets against the Fighting Knights (9-6, 3-3 SSC), just one day after Eckerd swept Barry University.
Even more important was the Tritons gaining a half game in the Sunshine State Conference standings, where EC emerged from a four-way jam for second behind the University of Tampa.
On the season, nine of the 11 Eckerd wins have been won in the minimum three sets.
“I think every time we go out there, we play better,” EC Head Coach Courtney Draper said. “We've spent a lot of time in practice working on our serving and it really paid off today. Our setters again did a fantastic job of putting our hitters in position to make plays.”
The Tritons forced Lynn's offense to operate out of sync with a total of eight service aces on the afternoon. Laton recorded the team's seventh ace to send the home crowd with a free pizza voucher courtesy of Domino's.
Eckerd was able to get out of the gates and send the Fighting Knights reeling in all three sets, building an 8-1, 8-3 and 8-2 advantage, to begin each individual frame.
The Tritons were able to hold onto their leads and build even more separation to force Lynn to exhaust both timeouts in the early going.
Ana de Olano spiked down a pair of kills late in the third set to put the finishing touches on arguably the squad's most impressive showing of the season.
Immediately following the match, 45 eager participants turned out for the program's free youth clinic to work with the Tritons and Coach Draper on basic fundamentals.
The Tritons will look to stay hot to start the month of October, traveling to Saint Leo University for a Tuesday road match set to begin at 7 p.m.
