ST. PETERSBURG -- The Eckerd Tritons volleyball team picked up a key victory over the Florida Tech Panthers on Tuesday in straights sets, winning by set scores of 25-17, 25-20, 25-17.
After falling behind 3-1 to start the match, the Tritons took their first lead after seeing four straight scores put them up 5-3. Florida Tech answered with four of the next rally wins to force a 7-7 tie, but Eckerd took control from there with a 9-3 spurt to move the game to 16-10 in their favor. The lead for the Tritons never dipped below three the rest of the way and the team took the opener by eight after a block by
Peyton Walker gave them their 25th point.
Eckerd was the first to 10 points at 10-8 following a back-and-forth beginning to the second. Each team won a pair of rallies to keep the margin at two and make it a 12-10 score, but again the Tritons took off from there with a 5-0 run.
Jaelynn Tunley picked up consecutive kills during that span to lift the team to a 17-10 advantage. The Panthers grabbed three of the next four points to pull within five, but Eckerd quickly turned a five-point lead to nine at 23-14. A kill by
Kaitlyn Dohs gave the team set point, but the team endured five straight points from the visitors before
Kinga Michalska's kill wrapped up the 25-20 victory. The Tritons never trailed in the third on their way to a double-digit win and a match sweep.
Eckerd boasted an efficient showing offensively with a .330 hitting percentage as a team, led by Michalska's 14 kills at a .464 clip. Dohs was next with nine and Walker had seven, while
Gabi Jedrzejczak had 35 assists in the three sets.
The Tritons improve to 17-11 with the win and will take on Palm Beach Atlantic on Friday.
