TAMPA, Fla. — Florida Southern College volleyball lost to No. 3 Tampa, 3-0, on Tuesday at the Bob Martinez Athletics Center. Florida Southern hit .106 with 27 kills, while the Spartans finished with a .479 hitting percentage on just four errors.
Florida Southern snapped a four-game win streak to move to 10-7 overall and 5-4 in Sunshine State play. The Spartans are 17-1 overall and 9-0 in Sunshine State play.
The Mocs stayed within 15-10 in the opening set before the Spartans scored six straight points, including a service ace, to stretch the margin to 21-10. Earlier,
Elizabeth McDonald helped keep the Mocs in contact with four kills, including back-to-back Florida Southern points that moved the score to 9-14.
Lindsay Piktel and
Mel Garrett also added kills as FSC tried to answer the Spartans' early swings, but the home side continued to side out and added pressure from the service line. Garrett and
Ella Kuosmanen produced late kills, but Tampa closed the set with the final four points for a 25-12 decision.
Florida Southern could not recover from the Spartans' six-point mid-set run, which moved the score from 10-7 to 16-7 and created the separation in a 25-16 second-set loss. The Mocs answered a 6-2 deficit with three straight points, getting kills from McDonald and Garrett before a Tampa attack error pulled them within 6-5. Garrett added two more kills as FSC stayed within 10-7, but the Spartans' run on Kayla Dondero's serve put the set out of reach.
Mariana Silva and McDonald later provided sideout kills, and Piktel had three kills in the closing stretch, including one before
Tori Borton's ace made it 24-16. Tampa finished the set on Ainhoa Molleja's kill to take it 25-16.
The Mocs opened the third set with a Garrett kill off the assist by
Mallory Baruch, but the Spartans answered and steadily built separation on the way to a 25-13 set result. McDonald and Piktel kept FSC connected through the early and middle portions, with Baruch setting up multiple kills as the Mocs worked back from deficits of 6-3, 10-5 and 14-7. Piktel added another kill and Kuosmanen followed with a service ace to bring Florida Southern to 18-12, but Tampa responded with three straight points and later closed the set by taking seven of the final eight. Piktel finished the set with four kills, while McDonald added three, as the Spartans completed the third set at 25-13.
McDonald led Florida Southern with nine kills and added two digs. Piktel finished with eight kills, two assists and two digs. Baruch recorded a team-high nine assists.
Nako Sasaki collected a team-high seven digs and added two assists.
Connor Rahn led Tampa with nine kills, hit .500 and added two blocks. Ainhoa Molleja finished with eight kills on a .800 hitting percentage and collected six digs. Kayla Dondero recorded 19 assists and three service aces, while Ana Rivera posted a team-high 11 digs and added three aces.
Up next, Florida Southern hosts No. 10 Lynn on Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. at George W. Jenkins Field House in Lakeland, Florida.
