DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Volleyball) –Florida Tech volleyball's (2-6) early season struggles continued on the road Tuesday night as Sunshine State Conference provisional member Embry-Riddle (5-3) handed the Panthers a 3-1 defeat at the ICI Center in Daytona Beach.
 
ERAU cruised through the opening set by a score of 25-11, however the Panthers responded in the second by pulling out a 28-26 set victory to tie the match at one game apiece. After the intermission, the Eagles regained control of the momentum and closed out FIT by winning the next two sets 25-16 and 25-15.
 
Kelly Germain led the Panthers with 13 kills and Olivia Hersey collected 10 kills on a team-high attack rate of 0.231. Heather Bowersox was next on the stat sheet with eight kills.
 
Kiersten Rosa accounted for 37 of the team's 44 assists, while also collecting a career-high 19 digs. In addition to Rosa, four other Panthers finished with double-digit digs in the match including Becca Bower (19), Jenna Schaffer (16), Germain (14) and Kyra Atkinson (10).
 
Paola Virella paced the Eagles with 13 kills and 14 digs. Laina Blanton and Asya Oguz added nine and eight kills, respectively. Blanton and Amanda Saunders each collected a match-best seven block assists, while McKenna James added five block assists of her own. In total, the Eagles combined for 24 block assists and 14 total team blocks in the match, and just one block error.
 
Jordan Nakayama led ERAU with 22 assists, to go along with 11 digs, and Maile Spenser collected a match-high 31 digs.
 
The Panthers return to the Clemente Center this Friday for their SSC opener against Rollins at 7 p.m. ET. For live coverage of the action, go to FloridaTechSports.com/live.