ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Nova Southeastern University women's volleyball team (11-6, 4-3 SSC) closed out the weekend Sunshine State Conference road trip with a 3-0 loss to the Eckerd Tritons (8-7, 3-4 SSC) on Saturday afternoon. The Sharks fell in straight sets at the McArthur Center 25-22, 27-25, 25-23.
Early in the opening set, Eckerd jumped out to a 19-13 lead. However, NSU dug deep and went on a 7-1 scoring run that tied score up at 20-20. The Tritons fended another tie at 22-22 and scored the last three points off a scrappy Sharks team to take the first set 25-22.
In the second set, NSU trailed early 7-2 to the Tritons. But after an NSU timeout by head coach Jenn King, the Sharks reeled off a 10-8 run that forced the Tritons into their first timeout of the frame. Coming out of the timeout, the Sharks outscored Eckerd 4-1 to tie the set a 16 all. Down the stretch, NSU tied the frame five more times, but Eckerd scored the last two points taking a 2-0 lead in the match after picking up a hard fought 27-25 win.
The battled continued in the third set. Early on, Eckerd took a 9-4 lead. After another NSU timeout, the Sharks went on a 5-1 scoring run to knot the set up a 10-10 forcing the Tritons into another break. The Sharks managed to tie the set three more times over the next six points exchanged, but then Eckerd began to pull away outscoring NSU 12-10 to close out the set for a 25-23 win and picked up the 3-0 conference win.
Dana Holger (Sr., Lino Lakes, Minn.) paced the Sharks with a team hit 13 kills, while Denvyr Tyler-Palmer added 10 kills. Kaelyn Brock (So., La Quinta, Calif.) led NSU defensively with 16 digs and Meagan Burns (Fr., Slyvania, Ohio) added another 11. On six kills, Devyn Main (So., Port Charlotte) led the team in hitting percentage hitting a .667 clip, and Caitlin Donahue (Sr., Miami, Fla.) added 9 kills and a .471 hitting percentage.
NSU will be looking to regain some of their early season momentum as they head into the SSC/GSC Crossover that will be held next week at the University of West Georgia in Carrolton. The tournament crossover schedule will be announced on Monday.
