Florida Southern Falls in Dig for Diabetes Match

LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern volleyball team held its annual Dig for Diabetes match Tuesday night with all ticket proceeds going directly to the American Diabetes Association. The Moccasins took on Eckerd College and fell 3-0 but the match was much closer than the 3-0 score indicates.
 
The Mocs held leads in all three sets but the Tritons were able to score points late and take the sweep. The loss drops Florida Southern's record to 13-12 on the season and 6-9 in Sunshine State Conference play. The Tritons improved to 20-5 overall and 9-5 in league action.
 
Junior Mackenzie Petermann once again led the offensive effort for the Mocs as she tallied a team-best 10 kills in the loss. She came up one dig short of a double-double with nine while adding one solo block. Graduate student Emma Shaddix and senior Madison Barton each chipped in eight kills with Shaddix adding a service ace and four digs while Barton had four digs and a team-high tying three blocks.
 
Senior setter Mika Garza dished out 31 assists while digging up 12 balls for her seventh double-double of the season. Graduate student libero Beatrice Formilan dug up a team-best 17 balls while sophomore Zoe Lowe posted her second double-digit digs performance of the season with 10.
 
FSC as a team hit just .167 over the three sets while the Tritons turned in a team hitting percentage of .245. Both teams were even in service aces with three each while the Tritons edged the Mocs in blocks 6.5-6.
 
Joelle Coulter led the Triton effort with 19 kills while setter Krysten Garrison became just the 15 NCAA Division II student-athlete this season to achieve two-or-more triple doubles as she tallied 10 kills, 36 assists and 17 digs. Her 10^th kill of the match was on match point to seal the victory.
 
FSC held the early lead in the opening set but the Tritons were able to pull even and eventually took the lead. Leading 17-16 late in the period, the Tritons began a 7-2 run to force the first set point of the night. The Mocs fought off three set points before a kill from Coulter ended the set, 25-21.
 
The second set was tight from the very first point of the period. The largest lead of the set was four points which happened twice and both times it was the Mocs who had the advantage. FSC led 18-14 as well as 20-16 but an 8-1 run by the Tritons forced another set point at 24-21. The Mocs fought off three set points to tie the set at 24-24 but back-to-back kills by Coulter ended the set 26-24 in favor of the visitors.
 
The third set opened with a 4-1 run by the Mocs but the Tritons quickly responded with a 5-1 run of their own to take a 6-5 lead. The two teams went back-and-forth over the next several minutes until once again a late run by the Tritons turned the set in their favor. Leading 20-18, the Tritons went on a 4-0 run to force the first match point of the night. Similar to the opening two sets, the Mocs fought off two match points until a dump by Garrison found the floor to secure the sweep for Eckerd, 25-20.
 
Florida Southern will return to action Thursday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. as the Mocs travel to Winter Park, Fla. to take on the Rollins College Tars.   
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