Tritons Fight Back but Fall Short against No. 16 Tampa, 3-1

Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - After dropping the first two sets of its Sunshine State Conference opener on Friday against No. 16 Tampa, the Eckerd volleyball team fought back to extend the contest to a fourth set but couldn't put the Spartans away, falling 3-1 at the McArthur Center.

The Tritons (6-3, 0-1 SSC) staved off match point twice in the third set and rallied for a 27-25 win, then had the Spartans on the ropes in the fourth set leading 24-21.

But this time, it was Tampa that held on taking four straight points to turn Eckerd's set point into match point once again.  A Katie Arnette kill kept EC alive, but not for long, as UT closed the set and the match with a block by Alexandra Misca and Allee Stelogeannis and a kill by Katie McKiel.

The first two sets were tight until Tampa (6-2, 1-0 SSC) pulled away late both times.  After a run of four straight points pulled EC within a point at 15-14 in the first set, the Spartans won 10 of the next 12 points to take the set, 25-16.

Set two was even closer as the two teams exchanged points and remained tied at 19-19 after a kill by JaQuayla Baker evened the score for the 13th time in the set.  But again, Tampa put together a strong finish taking six straight points to win 25-19 and take a two-set lead.

Eckerd, though, displayed its heart after Tampa took a 24-22 lead into match point.  After a UT service error, the Tritons forced a pair of attack errors and soon afterward won the set on the strength of a Lauryn Nelson kill and Kaitlyn Sibson ace.

The Tritons were then primed to push the match to a fifth set, holding a 24-21 lead in the fourth, but a run of four straight Spartan points swung the momentum and Eckerd would not recover.

Despite the loss, Eckerd head coach Michelle Piantadosi was pleased to see her team continue battling.

"I was proud of our fight and we need to build off of that moving forward," she said.  "But a big lesson learned is that we must prepare better so that we are ready to compete from the first point of the first set."

The Tritons got 14 kills from Nelson and Arnette and 13 from Baker.  Setter Gabriella Reis set a new career-high with 47 assists to go along with 11 digs for a double-double.  Sibson paced the back row with 21 digs, her fourth straight match with at least 20 digs.

Eckerd faces another nationally-ranked team on Saturday, hosting No. 22 Florida Southern at 4:00 PM.