TAMPA, Fla. - The Eckerd volleyball team rallied to win the fourth set after trailing 2-1 and was on the brink of winning the decisive fifth set against West Florida. However, EC was unable to complete the comeback falling 3-2 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday night at the Bob Martinez Center.
Eckerd fell behind 5-1 to start the match but rallied to knot the match at 10-10. After swapping the following few points, EC went on a 7-3 run to take a 21-17 favor. The Argos tied the match at 23-23 before back-to-back kills by Joelle Coulter and Kalli Schoening gave Eckerd the set, 25-23.
UWF took a 9-4 lead in the second stanza and maintained a four-point cushion until EC used a 7-2 run to square the set, 21-21. The Argos then took the match on a kill, 25-23. The teams remained within two points of each other through the third stanza, with UWF holding the lead, with West Florida taking the set 25-22.
The teams swapped points early in the fourth stanza before the Tritons went on a 10-5 run to take a 21-12 advantage before taking the set 25-18.
Eckerd jumped out to a 5-2 start to the fifth set. UWF later went on a 6-1 run to pull ahead 10-9. The Tritons pulled back ahead at 13-12, but the Argos pushed back in front 14-13. A Stella Antypa kill tied the match at 14-14, but a pair of West Florida kills gave them the win, 16-14.
HOW IT ENDED
FINAL: West Florida 3, Eckerd 2 (25-23, 23-25, 25-22, 18-25, 16-14)
RECORDS: Eckerd 24-7; West Florida 28-5
NOTES AND NUMBERS
- Four Tritons posted double-digit kills: Damyah Joyner (20), Antypa (17), Anna Jungjohann (12), and Coulter (12).
- Joyner's 20 kills set a career-high. She also hit an impressive .472 percent.
- Coulter and Antypa posted double-doubles, adding 19 and 11 digs, respectively.
- Coulter's 19 digs set a career-high.
- Krysten Garrison added 46 assists, eight digs, and five kills.
- Ashley Eck paced the defense with 20 digs. She also added seven assists.
- Eckerd hit .297 in the match.
- EC posted a season-high 73 kills.
- The match marked the end of the careers of Eckerd's five seniors - Joelle Coulter, Anna Jungjohann, Nicki Bechtold, Agata Sklepik, and Krysten Garrison.
- Jungjohann ended her career with a .321 hitting percentage, ranking second in program history.
- Garrison ends her career with 2,004 assists over her two seasons. She is just the eighth Triton to reach 1,000 assists in a season, logging 1,020 this year.
- Eckerd's appearance in the NCAA Regional was the first since 2017.
