Volleyball picks up pair of sweeps in North Carolina

PEMBROKE, N.C. -- The Eckerd volleyball team closed out its stay at the UNC Pembroke Invitational on Saturday with a pair of 3-0 wins over the Virginia State Trojans and UNC Pembroke Braves.

In match one vs. Virginia State, the Tritons rolled to a 25-12 win in the opening game, highlighted by a pair of 7-0 scoring runs throughout. Eckerd closed the game with 11 of the final 13 points and hit .406 with 16 kills and just three errors. 

The Tritons got off to a fast start in the second, racing out to a six-point lead at 11-5. Virginia State answered with a 4-0 run and eventually got within a point at 17-16 and again at 20-19. From there, Eckerd secured the set with a 6-1 surge, seeing four kills from four different players across that span. The Trojans fought off four match points in the third and turned a 24-18 deficit into 24-22, but Hayden Nash halted the threat with a kill to seal the win.

As a team, Eckerd hit .317 in the win, led by 11 kills apiece from Nash, Kinga Michalska, and Nyla Muskovin. Michalska also led the defensive effort with 12 digs, while Nash added two solo blocks and four assisted. Gabi Jedrzejczak averaged over 12 assists per set, finishing with 37. 

In match two vs. UNC Pembroke, the two teams battled through an evenly-matched opening set, with the Tritons hitting .278 and the Braves at .258 on the same amount of attempts. The Braves jumped out to a 6-2 lead, but Eckerd inched closer and eventually evened the score at 8-8. Another scoring spurt from the home team gave them its second four-point advantage of the frame moments later and pushed the margin out to as many as five with a score of 18-13. Trailing 21-17, kills from Seiler Hruska and Nash, along with an ace by Sydney Williams, highlighted a 4-0 run to even the game. After the Braves stopped the run, another three points went in favor of the Tritons before answering Pembroke's 23rd point with a set-clinching kill from Nash.

Following a 3-0 start from Eckerd to begin the second, neither team saw a lead eclipse two points the rest of the way in another back-and-forth frame. Finding themselves in a deadlock at 20 points apiece, consecutive blocks from Nash and Peyton Walker gave the Tritons the upper hand. After a Pembroke point to bring the differential to one, Michalska notched a kill to give the team set point. An error from the Braves two rallies later secured the Tritons their second straight two-point win. Eckerd coasted to a 25-12 win in the third to post its second sweep of the day.

The Tritons hit .211 as a team in the win compared to the Braves' .071 mark. Nash led a balanced attack with nine kills, while Williams was one of three players to notched double-digit digs with 16. 

With the wins, Eckerd improves to 7-1 on the season. The team will return home for next weekend's Triton Invite.