Box Score
TAMPA, Fla. – If recent history was any indication of the kind of second-round clash that was in store for the NCAA Tournament South Regional between the Eckerd College volleyball program and Rollins College, it was safe to assume it would go down to the wire.
History didn't disappoint.
With a pair of five-set marathon matches between the programs already archived from respective regular-season meetings this year, the second-seeded Tritons rose to the occasion and delivered another epic ending by taking down No. 3 seed Rollins College, 3-2 (25-16, 19-25, 27-25, 23-25, 15-13).
The Tritons pushed their way through four ties in the in a back-and-forth final set and when
Olivia Fraser registered the final knockout blow, the team and a well-traveled contingent of Eckerd fans erupted with joy.
In the process, Eckerd (27-4 overall) joined the “Sweet 16” and punched the program's first-ever ticket to the South Regional final, where a 7 p.m. date awaits against No. 1 seed University of Tampa tomorrow night. The Tritons split the regular-season series against the Spartans, dealing Tampa its lone loss of the year back on Oct. 28.
“It was a case of two great teams battling it out tonight,” an elated SSC Coach of the Year Courtney Draper said. “Rollins made us work for everything. We used all our subs, all our timeouts, but I'm just so proud of this group right now.”
“Our seniors had this in their minds from the moment they got here,” she added. “We're one step closer to reaching another one of our team goals.”
Eckerd had advanced to Friday's second-round matchup after eliminating No. 7 seed Christian Brothers University on Thursday. Rollins defeated No. 6 seed University of North Alabama in its first postseason match.
Lindsay Biggs crushed a career-high 21 kills versus just three errors,
Ariana Chinn added a dozen more and
Ali McAlvany and
Olivia Fraser each finished with 10.
Hallie Ward had 33 digs in a match that featured a number of sustained volleys that were as good as it gets.
The Tritons' offense was full throttle out of the gates in the first set with a .359 hitting percentage and Eckerd's defense snuffed out some powerful attacks by Camille Indest and Megan Hodges while the Tritons' outside hitters imposed their will on Rollins' front line.
But Rollins' top gun, Hodges, came alive in the second set with a four kills and an ace as the Tars grabbed early momentum and held on despite a late EC rally.
The Tritons fell into a quick 0-5 hole in the third set following an ace, ball-handling error and block, but quickly worked to get back within striking distance. Rollins served up an error to break a 25-25 tie and McAlvany and Fraser sealed the third frame with an assisted block to grab an important 2-1 advantage.
The Tars staved off defeat by riding seven of Kelly Merideth's team-leading 16 kills in the fourth set. Rollins' defense came through with clutch back-to-back blocks to snap a 23-23 tie and force a final frame.
Eckerd trailed 8-10 in the fifth frame but back-to-back kills from Biggs knotted things back up. Another Biggs kill made it 14-11 before Hodges had back-to-back kills that closed the gap to one point.
The Tritons will be taking on Tampa tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the Bob Martinez Center. Live stats, live video and live blog links will all be available on EckerdTritons.com.
