ST. PETERSBURG -- The Eckerd Tritons volleyball team picked up its fourth straight win on Saturday, earning a 3-1 Senior Night victory over the visiting Nova Southeastern Sharks.
Natalie Aniol kicked off the match with a kill, but the Tritons were met with four consecutive points from the Sharks. Trailing 7-4 moments later, Eckerd rattled off five points in a row to take a 9-7 lead, seeing four of those five come off the service hand of
Sidney Knowles. After exchanging points through several rallies, the Sharks took command of the set with a 5-0 scoring run to grab a 16-11 advantage. Eckerd fought back, eventually evening the score at 18 following a second 5-0 outburst of the frame. The two teams continued to go back and forth from that point until the Tritons broke away from a 22-22 deadlock with two points in a row. Two rallies later,
Gabi Jedrzejczak secured a kill to give the team its 25th point and a 1-0 lead in the match.
Nova Southeastern started off set two with the first five points, but the Tritons battled back to get within one after collecting points via a block, kill, and service ace. The Sharks remained out in front and were the first to 10 before Eckerd caught back up and claimed a lead of 13-12 on a kill by Aniol. From that point, neither team held a lead of more than a single point until a pair of kills by
Jaelynn Tunley and another from Aniol highlighted a 3-0 run to turn a 20-19 deficit into a 22-20 lead. Kills by
Kaitlyn Dohs and Aniol accounted for two of the final three points to secure a three-point win for the Tritons and a 2-0 lead in the match. Nova bounced back with a 25-22 triumph in the third to extend the contest to a fourth frame.
In the fourth, the Tritons doubled up the Sharks early on at 6-3 following three straight aces by
Kinga Michalska. Eckerd held onto a small lead and was the first to reach 10 points, but Nova moved out in front shortly after with a score of 12-11. Moments later with the game evened at 13, the Tritons saw a pair of kills from Michalska and an ace by Jedrzejczak to regain their three-point cushion. Eckerd saw its lead reach as many as five at 20-15, but Nova strung together a late run and fended off two match points before eventually grabbing a lead of 25-24. An error by the Sharks gave the Tritons new life, and a Michalska kill set up the third match point opportunity. Nova's kill attempt on the following rally sailed out of bounds to wrap up the 27-25 decision for Eckerd.
Michalska led the way for the Tritons with 19 kills and seven aces, while Dohs was the team leader in digs with 19 to go with her 10 kills. Jedrzejczak had 42 assists and Aniol collected four blocks in the win.
With the win, the Tritons improve to 19-12 on the season and finish the SSC regular season with a 9-11 mark. The team will await its NCAA Tournament fate when the Selection Show airs Monday night.
