ST. PETERSBURG -- The Eckerd Tritons volleyball team came up short on Tuesday against the Rollins Tars, falling in five sets at home.

Rollins took the opener by the slimmest of margins at 25-23, but the Tritons fought back with a come-from-behind victory in set two to even the match at a win apiece. Eckerd trailed by as many as seven in the second, but a 9-0 scoring run off of the service of Kinga Michalska flipped the script and gave the Tritons the advantage with a score of 17-15. Rollins ended the offensive outburst with a kill, but Eckerd pulled away with another three-point spurt to take control. The Tritons eventually won the set 25-19, capping off a 17-4 scoring run to close out the game with an ace from Sydney Williams.

The Tritons mirrored the first set score, but this time in their favor with a 25-23 decision to put them up 2-1 in the match. Eckerd quickly doubled up Rollins at a score of 8-4 and remained out in front until the Tars evened things up at 13-13 before taking a 16-14 lead to force an Eckerd timeout. From there, the Tritons regained momentum, seeing a pair of kills by Michalska close out a 4-0 scoring run. After exchanging rally wins to set up a 21-21 deadlock, kill by Kaitlyn Dohs and Peyton Walker moved the Tritons closer to a set win. Dohs continued her late-game success with the final two kills for the team to give the Tritons a 2-1 lead in the match. Rollins answered with a 25-20 triumph in the fourth to push the match to five.

In the fifth, Eckerd countered a first-rally win for Rollins with three straight points, highlighted by a kill and an ace from Gabi Jedrzejczak. The Tars eventually pulled even and the two teams each had five points after the first 10 rallies. Rollins broke away first with a two-point lead at 9-7, but a 4-0 run by Eckerd that saw a block and a kill from both Michalska and Natalie Aniol later gave the Tritons the advantage at 12-10. Doh's kill at 13-13 gave Eckerd the first of twp straight match points for the team, and Rollins notched its first opportunity after a kill made it 17-16 in the Tars' favor. An error from the visitors and another kill by Dohs set up the team's third match point, but Rollins collected the final three points to steal the win by a score of 20-18. 

Dohs led the way for the Tritons with 16 kills and 18 digs, while Jaelynn Tunley followed with 15 kills and 14 digs. Michalska also added a double-double with 13 kills and 14 digs, while both Aniol and Walker finished with three blocks apiece.

Eckerd will be back in action Thursday at Saint Leo.