Women's volleyball team beats Santa Fe in conference match

The Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball team picked up a big Suncoast Conference win Tuesday night at Titan Field House on the Melbourne campus.

The Titans beat Santa Fe College for the first time since the 2017-18 season, winning 25-18, 26-24 and 25-11. The win snapped a three-match losing streak against the Saints.

The Titans got off to a fast start in the first set, holding a 7-1 lead before Santa Fe called timeout. The Titans would increase the lead to 17-7 after a couple of Agatha Rodriguez aces. The Titans would finish the first set with a 25-18 win.

The second set was tightly contested as a Delphinia Beams block gave the Titans an 8-7 lead. But Santa Fe would strike back and took a 13-10 lead before a Desiree Cruz kill and an ace by Jaremis Maldonado cut the lead to one. With the match tied 21-21 Santa Fe won the next three points and looked like they would tie the match, but the Titans would not be denied as Beams records a huge kill and then a Giselle Giraud kill pulls it to 24-23. Maldonado would record another ace to tie the match 24-24 and she would serve it out to give the Titans a 2-0 lead.

The third set was tied 8-8 when Yuleidy Torres stepped up to serve. She would record a couple of aces and would serve 12 straight points as the Titans took a commanding 20-8 lead. The 12 consecutive points is the most by a Titans player. A couple of Giraud kills would help wrap up the match.

"Tonight, we played very well. Our Serve was key to our victory and the team was able to play very well. We knew the season was on the line and we did a great job playing under pressure," Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball coach Melito Eleutiza said. "Today we showed the kind of roster that we have and how deep our roster is, even missing three key players in tonight's game. I am very proud of the team and we will continue working hard on practice to improve our game."

Giraud finished with 20 kills and two blocks while Cruz had eight kills and two blocks and Beams finished with five kills. Janleen De Jesus had 32 assists and Torres had 10 digs and three aces in the match. The Titans finished with 10 aces in the win.

Eastern Florida State College, who is now 4-6 overall and 2-5 in the conference, will host Miami Dade College who is ranked fifth in the nation and is 5-2 in the conference.