Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Eckerd volleyball team was unable to pick up its first Sunshine State Conference victory of the season as the Tritons fell 3-1 to Saint Leo University on Saturday afternoon in the McArthur Center.
The SSC rivals split the opening two sets with Saint Leo taking the first set and Eckerd the second before the Lions closed out the match with wins in the third and fourth sets.
Set two saw the Tritons at their peak for the contest with 16 kills and a .355 attacking percentage to go along with three aces.
Mackenzie Redner came off the bench to provide a spark for Eckerd, tallying five kills on nine attempts in the set.
The 25-22 set win could have been used as a shift in momentum after a 25-17 loss in set one. However, the Tritons were unable to capitalize as they dropped the third set by the same score as the first.
Led by eight
Tjasa Kotnik kills, the Tritons (5-4, 0-2 SSC) rallied from a three-point deficit in a back-and-forth set but fell just short as an Ashlee Hodgskin kill finished off the match for Saint Leo. The set saw seven lead changes before SLU took the final three points to earn its first conference win.
Kotnik took charge for Eckerd with 21 kills, three aces and nine digs in the contest.
Lauryn Nelson's 11 kills and Redner's 10 rounded out the attack for the Tritons. Gabriella Reis finished with a double-double, registering 41 assists and 14 digs.
Kaitlyn Sibson and
Arielle Erillo were also strong on the back row with 18 and 10 digs respectively.
The Lions (6-3, 1-1 SSC) had three players reach double digits in kills, paced by Britt Sederholm's 19. Jillian Stolzenburg had 12 while Katie Adamson added 11.
The Tritons' next opportunity to rebound will be on Friday, Sept. 25, as they travel to West Palm Beach, Florida, to take on provisional SSC member and 17th-ranked Palm Beach Atlantic (7-2). The match is set to begin at 7:00 PM.
