Volleyball team's season ends with state tourney loss

The Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball team's historic run ended Saturday afternoon in the FCSAA State Tournament at Florida State College at Jacksonville.

The Titans, who came in as the No. 8 seed, fell to Polk State College in four sets, 25-21, 20-25, 16-25 and 15-25.

Polk State held an 18-15 lead in the first set but Giselle Giraud and Desiree Cruz each have a kill and Giraud adds another to tie the match 19-19. Polk State would once again take the lead, 21-19 but an error and a big block tied the match 21-21.

Anaeli Perea took the ball and served out the match for the Titans.

The teams traded points in the second set as Madeline Browne had back-to-back kills to tie the match 12-12. It would remain tight throughout and was a one-point match on a Cassandra Gregory kill to cut lead to 21-20. But that was as close as the Titans would get.

"I am proud of the ladies, they played really well this week and fought hard today," Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball coach Carmelo Eleutiza said. "We came here wanting to prove that we belonged in the state tournament and I believe we accomplished that."

Giraud finished with 17 kills and 18 digs while Cassandra Gregory finished with nine kills and Cruz had six. Anaeli Perea had a team-high 22 digs while Sarah Langenbach finished with a season-high 19 digs. Janleen De Jesus also had a season-high in digs with 16.

The Titans finish the season 8-11 and 1-2 in the state tournament.