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Box Score 2 TAMPA - Florida Southern Volleyball opened up play here Friday by splitting its two matches on the first full day of competition at the Red Elephant Cafe South Region Crossover Tournament hosted by Tampa and held at UT's Bob Martinez Athletics Center.
The Moccasins opened the day with a three-set victory over West Georgia (25-15, 25-20, 25-22), before suffering a hard fought five-set decision to 22nd-ranked West Florida (19-25, 25-21, 26-24, 29-31, 15-11) to conclude its first day of action at the tournament. FSC will conclude the event on Saturday at 1:15 p.m. against Christian Brothers.
With the split, the Mocs record moves to 15-8 overall on the season and are now 10-5 in non-conference matches.
In the opening match against UWG, the Mocs offense hit an efficient .333 and recorded 47 kills and they also had nine service aces, including a season-high four from senior outside hitter Anne Pietkiewicz (Winter Park, Fla.) to defeat the Wolves, who are one of three members of the Gulf South Conference the Mocs are playing this weekend.
Pietkiewicz would make FSC history with her second kill of the second set as she became just the 16th member of the school's 1,000 Kill Club and also became one of just seven Mocs to join the school's exclusive 1,000 Kill, 1,000 Dig Club. Other members of that elite club include current Mocs head coach Jill Stephens (1,691 kills, 1,475 digs), Beverly Stasis (2,001 kills, 1,659 digs), Becky Thyshen (1,789 kills, 1,006 digs), Sara Stewart (1,408 kills, 1,814Â digs), Kelly Fitzgerald (1,269 kill, 1,127 digs) and Danielle Durham (1,321 kills, 1,750 digs). Entering Friday's action, Pietkiewicz, who finished the UWG match with seven kills, had recorded 995 career kills and 1,037 career digs as a Moccasin.
Freshman middle blocker Kayshia Brady (Crescent City, Fla.) and sophomore outside hitter Kate Stromberg (Lexington, Ky.) led the way offensive for the Mocs against UWG as they each had 11 kills and hit a combined .583 as Brady hit a team-best .647 in the win, while Stromberg hit a season-best .579. Junior middle blocker Dominique Hale (Kingman, Ariz.) added seven kills and hit .364 for the match and junior setter Ali Skayhan (Beaverton, Ore.) added her 16th double-double of the season with 11 digs and 37 assists.
Along with Pietkiewicz recording four aces, freshman libero Arielle Fernandez (Pacifica, Calif.) tied her season-high with three aces, while Stromberg and sophomore defensive specialist Jasmine Childress (Muncie, Ind.) each had one ace.
UWG (6-7) was paced by 10 kills from Emily Reul, while Lesley Bemis added eight kills, three assisted blocks and hit .500 in the loss.
For the match, the Wolves hit .265 as a team, but had just three service aces and were outdug, 39-29. UWG did hold a 5-2 edge in blocks.
Meanwhile, in the second match against UWF, three Mocs recorded double-digit kills and four Mocs had double-digit digs, but the Argonauts held on for the win after limiting the Mocs to an .091 hitting percentage in the fifth and decisive set. In the fifth set, FSC had six kills and four attack errors, while UWF had 10 kills, four attack errors and hit .222.
Leading the way for the Mocs was Pietkiewicz, who tallied a career-high 22 kills and added 12 digs for her 10th double-double of the season. Pietkiewicz also added three blocks as the Mocs outblocked the Argos, 9-7 in the two-hour match.
Joining Pietkiewicz in double figures for kills was sophomore right side hitter Gabby Fernandez (Tampa, Fla.), who tallied 19 kills, two blocks and hit .413 in the match, while Brady added a career-high 15 kills, two blocks and hit .414 in the loss.
Defensively, the Mocs outdug the Argos, 81-66 as Childress led the way with 19, while Skayhan added 14 to go along with her 54 assists for her 17th double-double of the year.
After both teams took turns winning the first two sets, the Argos retook control of the match in the third set as they rallied from a 22-16 deficit to post a 26-24 win and take a 2-1 lead in the match.Â
In the fourth set, which featured 11 ties and four lead changes, the Mocs regrouped as they jumped out to an early 7-1 lead, keyed by four straight attack errors by the Argonauts (15-6). UWF used a 14-9 run to pull within 16-15 following a kill from Autumn Duyn. The Mocs would hold the lead until the Argos tied things up at 20. At that point, the lead would see-saw back-and-fourth until the Mocs scored the final two points of the set, including ending the set with a service ace by Gabby Fernandez to post a 31-29 win and force a fifth and deciding set.
UWF jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the fifth set and led 8-4, when the Mocs used a 3-0 run to pull within 8-7. That would be as close as the Mocs would get as the Argos would score seven of the set's final 11 points to earn the victory.
The Argos were paced offensively by Duyn, who finished with a double-double of 21 kills and 14 digs and hit .395, while Shackelford added 18 kills and hit .298. Jenny Bellairs contributed 11 kills in the win and K.C. Dobbins had 16 digs and 35 assists for the match.
