Women's volleyball team upends No. 16 Santa Fe in four sets

The Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball team bounced back with a big four-set win over No. 16 ranked Santa Fe College Saturday evening.

The Titans dropped the first match of the day in four sets to Florida State College at Jacksonville 25-19, 29-31, 25-27, 18-25, but came out strong against Santa Fe, winning 25-20, 19-25, 25-11 and 25-23.

"We talked in the locker room about not focusing on the FSCJ match, we knew we would see them again next week and didn't want to spend a lot of time focusing on the negativity," Eastern Florida State College volleyball coach Andrea Rasmussen said. "We spent time in practice working on our blocking, working on getting to the pin and funneling their hitters into our defense to make our job easier and we did that."

Carly Gregory and Rachael Gunn got the Titans off to a nice start in the first set with a combined 11 kills.

Santa Fe finished the second set on a 6-1 win to even the match.

But the Titans were not going to be denied on Saturday, winning the third set easily 25-11. The fourth set was even throughout as the two teams traded points right up until the end when Barbara Cabo Grubisic hit one down the line for the final point.

Kylie Hurst, Rachael Gunn and Carley Gregory all had 11 kills in the match and Elisa Pauzer finished with 10 kills and seven blocks. Grubisic finished with 41 setter assists.

"The (front line) was really effective tonight. I think that this is the first time we have executed a game plan and competed from point 1 to 25 in sets three and four," Rasmussen said. "That is the first time we have seen it this season. I think this was the best volleyball we have played in two sets and it showed."

The win was the second against preseason top 25 teams in the nation and Eastern Florida State College sits 7-2 on the season.

The Titans will hit the road for two matches next week, facing the same two teams they faced Saturday – Florida State College of Jacksonville on Thursday and Santa Fe on Saturday. Eastern Florida State College will return home on Sept. 12, hosting South Florida State in a match that can be seen live on WEFS-TV and streamed live at www.efsctitans.com/webcast