TAMPA, Fla. -- The Eckerd Tritons volleyball team came up just short against the No. 1 ranked Tampa Spartans on Friday, falling on the road in five sets.

Playing their third straight match against a top six nationally-ranked team, the Tritons took the opening set for the third straight time. Despite a couple of ties, Eckerd never trailed in game one, building an early lead of 7-3 before pulling away from 16-16 deadlock with five points in a row. Leading 23-18 moments later, the Spartans strung together four consecutive rally wins to get within one, but back-to-back kills from Kinga Michalska and Kaitlyn Dohs sealed the opener for the team and gave the Tritons a 1-0 lead in the match. Tampa answered with decisive wins in the second and third to flip the match lead in its favor.

In the fourth, the two teams battled to another close set that saw seven ties, with the latest coming at 17 points apiece. From there, Eckerd used a 5-0 scoring run to break away, fueled by a pair of kills from Michalska. In total, the Tritons notched nine of the final 11 rally wins to force a fifth and final set. 

Tampa collected the first two points of the fifth and doubled up Eckerd at 8-4 as the two teams switched sides. A block by the Tritons and a kill by Michalska cut the deficit in half and Eckerd continued to inch closer before three straight kills evened the game up at 9-9. The Spartans earned the next three points out of a timeout to regain control, but Eckerd hung around after a pair of successful swings from Dohs helped the team get within one at 14-13. The home team avoided a tiebreaker scenario with a kill on the ensuing rally to escape set five with a 15-13 win.

Three Tritons reached double figures in the kills category, with Michalska leading the way with 17, Dohs behind with 15, and Natalie Aniol with 11. Dohs also led an impressive defensive performance for Eckerd with 15 digs, followed by Gabi Jedrzejczak with 14. Peyton Walker added five blocks.

With the loss, the Tritons drop to 11-5 on the season and 1-4 in conference play. The team will be back in action tomorrow at Florida Southern.