FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern volleyball team led two sets to none before the visiting No. 15 Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish came back to win three straight sets, handing NSU a 3-2 defeat (25-20, 25-20, 24-26, 25-27, 13-15) in a hard-fought Tuesday night match at the NSU Arena. The Sharks now stand at 8-7 on the year while PBA moves to 12-3 with its twelfth straight win.
Denvyr Tyler-Palmer (17 kills, 14 digs),
Jessica Ronyak (15 kills, 18digs) and
Tashalyn Begon (13 kills, 10 digs) all registered double-doubles, the first time three Sharks did so in a single match thus far in 2016.
Megan Burns, the SSC Defensive Player of the Week, tied her season-record high with a total of 31 digs and
Katie Pyles chipped in 49 assists and 10 digs.
Maddie Uilk recorded two solo blocks and Elysaa Stimmell had three blocks total.
Down 12-6 in set one, the Sharks rattled off ten straight points at the hands of Tyler-Palmer behind the service line to take a 16-12 lead, which they would not surrender. The Sailfish were able to come within two (16-14) after a kill by Sarah Ragland and a Shark error, but NSU showed no mercy and continued to hold the edge, ultimately emerging victorious, 25-20.
Set two was a Nova Southeastern field day as the Sharks hit a blistering .368 as a team compared to PBA's .180 hitting percentage. Battling back and forth, tying the match ten times before at 16-16 NSU tallied tree consecutive points, capped with a kill by Begon, to steal the lead (19-16) and never let go. An NSU error at 22-20 would serve as the last point the Sailfish would tally as the Sharks went on to win set two, 25-20.
The third set was neck and neck throughout its entirety as the two teams were within four points of each other the whole time. Down 21-18, kills by Begon and Tyler-Palmer and a service ace by Burns knotted the score at 21-21 before the two teams would go back and forth until the scoreboard read 23-23. A kill by Pyles put NSU in match-winning position, but after a timeout called by PBA, the Sailfish returned to string together three consecutive points to steal the win, 26-24.
Down 5-3 in the early stages of set four, NSU rallied back to take back the lead until at 21-16, Palm Beach Atlantic took off on an eight-point run, going ahead, 23-21. After a kill by Pyles, an NSU service error put the 'Fish in set-winning position (24-22) but the Sharks continued to fight, but not enough, as PBA earned the 27-25 win, forcing a fifth set.
Once again, the Sharks held the lead early on until PBA generated four points in a row, to take the lead at 9-7. The Sailfish continued to hold the advantage until they ended up on top, 15-13, to take the match three sets to two.
The Sharks are scheduled to host the Florida Tech Panthers on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 7:00 p.m., but as Hurricane Matthew approaches the Florida coastline, we at NSU ask that you please continue to stay updated through NSUSharks.com in case there are any schedule changes.
