Florida Tech Nets Volleyball Victories
By Space Coast Daily // September 8, 2012
Team Plays Two More Matches Today
HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA – Florida Tech (5-1) closed out the first day of the Country Inn and Suites Volleyball Tournament with a come-from-behind 3-2 win against host Alabama-Huntsville Friday night at Spragins Hall. Set scores were 27-25, 17-25, 15-25, 25-19 and 15-10.
Immediately before pulling out its fifth win of the season, the Panthers turned back West Alabama (5-2) by a score of 3-1 (25-15, 20-25, 25-18 and 25-13).
Kaitlin Brennan was instrumental in both decisions, combining for a team-high 19 kills and 10 block assists. Marilyn Dick, Charlie French and Kim Juriga contributed 14 kills each. Alexis Mastela had 73 assists and 21 digs. Angie Lassman paced the Panthers in digs with 36. She was followed closely by French with 34 on the day.
Brennan hit a sizzling .529 in the opening match against West Alabama. She smashed nine kills without committing one error in 17 attacks. In the fourth and final set, the visitors from Melbourne jumped out to a 6-0 lead and never looked back.
Looking to build on the momentum from its third straight win, the Panthers won set one against Alabama-Huntsville, 27-25. However, the Chargers won the next two. Needing a positive result to prolong the match to the deciding set, freshman Alea Hamm totaled six of the team’s 17 kills in the fourth set, and FIT committed just two errors to Alabama-Huntsville’s seven.
In the fifth frame, Brennan snapped a 4-4 tie with her second consecutive kill. The Chargers stayed within reach until Caitlyn Ballweber gave her team a two-point lead, which it built on until a Alabama-Huntsville set error ended the game.
The Panthers return to Spragins Hall on Saturday to play West Georgia at 11 a.m. EDT and Union at 1 p.m. EDT.
