ST. PETERSBURG – The Eckerd Tritons volleyball team picked up two home wins on Friday to kick off the Triton/Lion Invite, defeating both the Georgia College & State Bobcats and and Franklin Pierce Ravens by a 3-0 score.
The Tritons wasted little time taking control of the opener, scoring the first four points of the match behind kills from Natalie Aniol, Grace Dumont, and Grace Herzog. Georgia College later pulled even at 9-9, but Eckerd regained the advantage and used a late surge, highlighted by consecutive kills from Herzog and Seiler Hruska. The Tritons used a 6-1 scoring run to pull away for a 25-17 opening-set victory.
Eckerd again established an early cushion in the second, jumping ahead 8-4 following a Sydney Williams ace. The Tritons stretched the margin to 18-11 before Taylor Rice added a late kill as Eckerd claimed another 25-17 set and a 2-0 match lead.
The Tritons came out quickly once again in the third, building an 8-2 advantage behind back-to-back kills from Herzog. Georgia College trimmed the deficit later in the frame, but Eckerd hit a match-best .263 in the set to close out the sweep, 25-19.
Eckerd finished the match with 45 kills while holding Georgia College to 22 and a .090 hitting percentage. Hruska paced the Tritons with 10 kills, while Peyton Walker delivered nine kills without an error on 17 swings for a .529 hitting percentage. Herzog also added seven kills.
Dumont and Lilli Weber split the setting duties with 17 and 16 assists, respectively. Williams anchored the back row with 16 digs, while Hruska added 14 and Jaelynn Tunley collected 13.
In the second match of the day against FPU, the opening frame remained tight early before Eckerd began to create separation. Kills from Hruska and Walker helped the Tritons turn a 5-5 tie into an early advantage, and a later stretch featuring kills from Hruska and Raegan Reeves to with a Walker block pushed the margin to 17-12. Eckerd maintained the five-point cushion down the stretch for the 25-20 win.
Franklin Pierce jumped ahead 6-3 in the second, but the Tritons quickly erased the deficit. Dumont served an ace during a four-point stretch that gave Eckerd a 9-7 lead, but the visitors hung around in striking distance before kills from Hayden Nash and Tunley late in the set helped Eckerd pull away. A Maggie Turner ace sealed the set win to cap off a 3-0 scoring spurt and secure the team's second straight 25-20 victory.
Eckerd took control early in the third and never looked back. Nash helped the Tritons build a 6-2 advantage, while Dumont added an ace to push the margin to 9-5. Later, Hruska supplied a kill and an ace during another Eckerd run as the Tritons stretched their lead to 17-11 before cruising to a 25-16 victory to complete their second sweep of the day.
Nash led the Triton attack with 13 kills on a .417 hitting percentage, while Walker added 10 kills on a .474 clip. Eckerd held Franklin Pierce to just 22 kills and a .008 hitting percentage, including a -.182 mark in the final set.
Dumont dished out 25 assists while adding two aces, and Williams posted a match-high 23 digs.
Across Friday's two matches, Walker totaled 19 kills with just one attack error, while Williams combined for 39 digs as the Tritons did not drop a set.
Eckerd will close out the weekend invitational at Saint Leo tomorrow against Henderson State.
