Box Score ST. PETERSBURG - The Florida Southern Volleyball team concluded its string of six straight road matches here Friday evening by falling in four sets to Eckerd (25-18, 25-19, 18-25, 25-16) in Sunshine State Conference action at the McArthur Center on the EC campus.
Friday's loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Moccasins and moved its record to 17-10 overall and 7-4 in the SSC, while Eckerd improved to 18-7 overall and 9-2 in the SSC. The Tritons are now two matches in front of the Mocs in the league standings with two-plus weeks remaining in the regular season. EC and FSC are sitting second and third in the league standings.
In Friday's match, the Mocs offense struggled as they finished with a .121 hitting percentage, despite recording seven more kills (52-45). The Mocs committed a season-high 35 attack errors on the night, including 12 in the fourth set.
Senior outside hitter Anne Pietkiewicz (Winter Park, Fla.) led the way offensively for the Mocs with a match-high 18 kills and finished with a .308 hitting percentage. She also added 10 digs for her 12th double-double of the season.
Along with Pietkiewicz, freshman middle blocker Kayshia Brady (Crescent City, Fla.) continued her hot play as she finished with 10 kills, but committed 10 attack errors on 28 attempts to record an .000 hitting percentage. Junior middle blocker Dominique Hale (Kingman, Ariz.) and freshman outside hitter Hailey Prescher (Dana Point, Calif.) each added eight kills for the Mocs. The eight kills for Prescher established a new career high.
While the Mocs offense struggled, its defense kept them in the match as they outdug the Tritons, 67-56, but were outblocked, 10-6 on the night.
Freshman libero Arielle Fernandez (Pacifica, Calif.) matched her career-high with 21 digs, while junior setter Ali Skayhan (Beaverton, Ore.) added 16 digs and 42 assists for her 20th double-double of the season. Additionally, Skayhan added four blocks in the match.
In the first set, EC jumped out to a 13-9 lead, but the Mocs responded with an 8-6 run to pull within 19-17 following a ball handling error by EC's Emily Schadow. That would be as close as FSC would get as the Tritons closed the set on a 6-1 run to earn the 25-18 victory.
The Tritons would open the second set by scoring seven of the first 11 points to take a 7-4 lead. The Mocs, though, would would use an 11-8 run to tie the set at 15. That would the only tie of the set as the Tritons scored four straight points to take a 19-15 advantage. The Mocs would pull within 23-18, before EC scored two of the set's final three points to post a 25-19 win and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third set, the Mocs got its offense on track as they recorded 14 kills and hit .273 en route to posting a 25-18 win. Much like the second set, the third set had only one tie as the Mocs jumped out to a 14-8 edge after the teams split the first four points. EC, though, used a 7-6 run to pull within 20-15 following a kill by Olivia Fraser. That would be as close as the Tritons would get as FSC closed the set on a 5-3 run to earn the win and prevent a Triton sweep.
The fourth set would not go well for the Mocs as they committed 12 of their season-high 35 attack errors in the set. The Mocs finished the set with just eight kills and a -.121 hitting percentage. Both teams weren't able to get much an edge early in the set until the Tritons used a 6-1 run to turn a 5-all tie into an 11-6 lead. EC's lead grew to as much as 19-10, before the Mocs scored three straight points to pull within 19-13. That would be as close as they would get as EC closed out the set scoring six of the final nine points to post a 25-16 win.
EC was paced by 13 kills and 11 digs from Lindsey Biggs, while Alex Laton and Fraser added nine kills in the victory. Additionally, Fraser had seven blocks and hit .409, while Madison Burr added a double-double of 17 assists and 11 digs.
The Mocs will look to return to the win column on Saturday as they return home to Jenkins Field House to host sixth-ranked Tampa in a 4 p.m. SSC match. The Spartans collected a hard-fought three-set win over the Mocs in Tampa on Sept. 28.
Saturday's match with UT will begin a stretch of four consecutive home matches for the Mocs before closing the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 17 at Nova Southeastern.
