ST. PETERSBURG -- The Eckerd Tritons volleyball team battled tough with the No. 4 ranked Barry Buccaneers on Saturday, falling by a score of 3-1.
After trailing by as many as five early on in the opening set, the Tritons eventually tied the game up at 11 points apiece following a 5-1 scoring run. The two teams exchanged rallies until Eckerd found its first lead of the match at 16-15 on a service ace by
Kinga Michalska. The Tritons did not lose the lead the rest of the way and closed out the frame with the final five points scored, highlighted by three kills from Michalska to take the set by a score of 25-19.
Barry appeared to take control of the second set, building a lead of as many as five before holding a late four-point advantage at 17-13. Two straight kills from
Kaitlyn Dohs fueled a 3-0 run to pull the Tritons within one and the team remained within striking distance until eventually evening the score at 23-23. Barry notched three of the final four points to win 26-24 and even the match at one win each way. The Buccaneers held on for a three-point victory in the third to take the upper hand at 2-1.
In a competitive fourth set, each team held leads as the a back-and-forth battle resulted in a 20-20 deadlock late in the game. The Buccaneers took two of the next three points to move out in front and faced two match points before the Tritons the score at 24 points apiece. After a kill by Barry, Michalska notched consecutive kills to put the Tritons at set point, but the Buccaneers answered with two in a row to grab their third match point opportunity. Despite Michalska keeping Eckerd alive with another kill, the visitors grabbed the final two points to steal set four and win the match three games to one.
Dohs had a double-double to lead the Tritons on the night, finishing with a career high in both kills (16) and digs (20). Michalska also added 16 kills,
Sydney Williams had 20 digs, and
Gabi Jedrzejczak posted 46 assists.Â
Eckerd will be back in action Friday at No. 2 Tampa.Â
