WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Volleyball) – The Florida Tech volleyball team (2-5) concluded a disappointing trip to West Palm Beach, Florida with two more losses on Saturday against Lee (2-2) and No. 17 Ferris State (4-4) on the final day of the Hyatt Place Bash at the Beach, hosted by Palm Beach Atlantic.
FIT's offensive struggles continued against the Flames as the Panthers were swept in straight sets for the third consecutive match, 25-19, 25-15, 25-15. The Crimson and Gray was limited to a season-low attack rate of -0.009, while Lee managed to hit .270 for the match.
Abigael Brenke led the Panthers with six kills.
Kelly Germain added five kills of her own to go along seven digs, in addition to four kills apiece by
Jenna Schaffer,
Kiayna O'Neal and
Olivia Hersey.
Kiersten Rosa initiated the FIT attack with a team-high 14 assists and eight digs, while
Becca Bower picked up a match-best 17 digs.
Silvia Sartori led the Flames' offense with 13 kills and nine digs and Brooke Wilsman contributed eight kills and 10 digs. Crystal Dedes paced all players with a .571 attack percentage on four kills. Catherine Conley added seven kills, while MaKayla Beebe picked up 16 digs. Sadie Johnson and Kristi Farley dished out 17 and 14 assists, respectively.
The Panthers closed out the weekend with a 3-0 loss to the 17th-ranked Bulldogs, 25-21, 25-23, 25-23. FIT picked up its offensive play from the previous outing, this time producing a hit percentage of 0.145 for the match while allowing FS to attack at a rate of 0.237.
O'Neal guided the Panthers with eight kills and an attack rate of .538.
Heather Bowersox, Brenke and Schaffer compiled five kills apiece, with the latter also collecting seven digs in the contest. Rosa picked up 13 assists and seven digs, and Bower added a team-high 11 digs to go along with three assists.
Ayanna Buckley and Maria Kronner paced the Bulldogs with 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Katie Placek and Allyson Cappel each contributed six kills to their team's effort, with Placek also adding 13 digs to her statline. Lauren Reminga finished with a match-best 17 digs.
The Panthers will look to bounce back in their upcoming match against Sunshine State Conference provisional member Embry-Riddle on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET at the ICI Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. For live coverage of the action, go to FloridaTechSports.com.
