Women's volleyball team picks up win against St. Petersburg
The Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball team defeated St. Petersburg College in four sets Tuesday night on the road.
The 19th-ranked Titans lost the first set 25-13 but bounced back to win the next three, 25-21, 25-22 and 25-16 to improve to 3-2 on the season.
Eastern Florida State College got off to a slow start against St. Petersburg College who looked strong in the first set, leading from the beginning.
Up 1-0, St. Petersburg led early in the second set, going up 14-9 before an Eastern Florida State College timeout. Sophomore Libby Ashline took the ball and served the next four points including an ace. It was one of her five aces on the evening and cut the St. Petersburg lead to one. An Aliah Snider ace tied things 15-15 and a Lesmary Raffucci kill gave the Titans their first lead in the match. Raffucci had seven kills in the set as the freshman led the comeback.
Tied 1-1, Eastern Florida State College once again had to comeback after St. Petersburg scored the first three points of the third set.
Kills by Dominae Jordan, Raffucci, two by Snider and an ace by Ashline and the Titans were out front 6-4. Eastern Florida State College would go on another run, scoring five straight points as Ashline once again showed a strong service game. Snider finished a long rally that gave the Titans a 17-12 lead.
St. Petersburg would battle back slowly and cut the lead to one at 21-20. But Jordan had a couple of kills and an ace to help EFSC take the third set and the lead 2-1.
The fourth set was all Eastern Florida State College as they took a 4-1 lead and led from the start. Every time St. Petersburg would get close, EFSC would come up with a big play to stay out front. Mariana Bueno Lopes came up big late with three straight service points and Ashline finished strong with a kill to make it 23-16 and then a block to give the Titans match point.
Raffucci finished with 12 kills while Jordan had nine and Ashline had seven.
Eastern Florida State College will travel to Wyoming later this week for the Laramie County Community College Triangular. The Titans will face Trinidad State College at 9 a.m. and No. 16 Casper College at 4 p.m. Friday. Then on Saturday EFSC will play No. 12 New Mexico Military Institute at 11 a.m., wrapping up the tournament at 3 p.m. against No. 18 Colby Community College.