Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern Volleyball returned home here Saturday for the first time in three weeks and dropped a three-set decision to sixth-ranked Tampa (25-20, 25-13, 25-22) in Sunshine State Conference action at Jenkins Field House.
The loss was the second consecutive for the Moccasins, who fell to 17-11 overall and 7-5 in the SSC, while UT won its sixth straight match and improved to 23-3 and 12-0 in the league.
"Tampa is an outstanding team and is playing well right now," Mocs head coach Jill Stephens said. "We didn't play very disciplined volleyball today or the past two matches."
One night after committing a season-high 35 attack errors in its four-set loss at Eckerd, the Mocs had 20 attack errors in Saturday's match and finished with a .145 hitting percentage.
While FSC's offense struggled, the Spartans, who have now won 10 straight matches against the Mocs, were very efficient offensively as they had 45 kills and just 10 attack errrors and finished with a .354 hitting percentage, inclduing hitting over .400 in the first two sets.
Senior Anne Pietkiewicz (Winter Park, Fla.) and junior middle blocker Dominique Hale (Kingman, Ariz.) led the way offensively for the Mocs as they each had eight kills, while sophomore right side hitter Gabby Fernandez (Tampa, Fla.) added seven kills and freshman setter Kendall Marotti (LaBelle, Fla.) had six in the loss.
Defensively, the Mocs were outdug, 50-39 and outblocked, 4-3, while holding a 4-3 edge in service aces, including three aces from junior setter Ali Skayhan (Beaverton, Ore.). Skayhan also led the Mocs defense with 13 digs and added 26 assists for her 21st double-double of the season, while freshman libero Arielle Fernandez (Pacifica, Calif.) had nine digs for the match.
The first two sets were dominated by the Spartans as they hit .485 and recorded 18 kills en route to earning a 25-20 win in the first set, before having 17 kills and hiting .441 in posting a 25-13 win in the second set. FSC had 14 kills and hit .167 in the first set, while recording just nine kills and hitting .027 in the second set.
In the third set, the Mocs took an early 7-6 lead following an attack error by UT's Kahley Patrick. The lead, though, was shortlived as the Spartans used a 7-1 run to take a 13-8 lead. From that point, the Mocs would respond with a 13-8 run to tie the set at 21 following an attack error by Meagan Burke. After Burke's error, UT would regroup and close out the set and match by scoring four of the final five points.
UT was paced by 11 kills and a .471 hitting percentage from All-American middle blocker Danielle Selkridge. In addition to Selkridge, Burke and Holly Reschke each added nine kills in the win. Reschke added 10 digs for a double-double, while Patrick also had a double-double of 30 assists and 10 digs.
The Mocs will remain at home as they host Florida Tech and Rollins in SSC matches next weekend. On Friday, Nov. 9, Florida Tech comes to Jenkins Field House for a 7 p.m. match, while on Saturday, Nov. 10, Rollins comes in for a 4 p.m. match.
