Women's volleyball team loses conference opener

The Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball team lost its Citrus Conference opener Wednesday night at Titan Field House on the Melbourne campus.

The seventh-ranked Titans lost for the first time this season as Polk State College won in four sets, 25-21, 24-26, 25-19 and 25-12. It was the second straight win for the Eagles who improved to 2-0 in the conference.

Eastern Florida State College went down by four points early but battled back to tie things 11-11 behind the strong serving of Paulina Dobrinova. But Polk State went on another run to lead 16-12. Sophia Knowles and Sofia Kamke each had kills to cut into the lead and Polk State called a timeout when their lead went down to one, 19-18. But that is as close as the Titans would get as Polk State took the early advantage with a 25-21 win.

The second set saw seven ties early but once again Polk State went on a run and led 17-14 as the Titans would call timeout. They would respond with seven straight points as Emma Kiser had an ace and Kamke had another kill. Up 21-18 Polk State had one more run and would tie things 24-24, but Emma Kiser had a kill to make it 25-24 and the Titans would tie things up with the 26-24 win in the second set.

The third set was tight throughout with the Titans trailing just 18-17 after a Bobbie Schwantz block but Polk State would score seven of the final nine points to take the third set 25-19.

Up 2-1 in the match, Polk State got off to a fast start and rolled for a 25-13 win to hand the Titans their first loss of the season and ended Eastern Florida State College's three-game win streak in the series.

Eastern Florida State College (7-1) will travel to No. 3 Miami Dade next Wednesday in a conference match at 6 p.m.