JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida volleyball team outhit Atlantic Sun foe USC Upstate 68 kills to 55, but the Spartans were able to overcome a two match deficit to defeat the Ospreys, 3-2 on Friday night at Hodge Arena in Spartanburg, S.C.

Upstate picked up the win with set scores of 20-25, 25-27, 25-22, 27-25, 15-12. The Spartans improve to 7-16 and 3-10 in the A-Sun while the Ospreys fall to 10-14 and 4-10 in the league.
 

Junior middle blocker Kaley Read tallied 24 kills while senior outside hitter Agata Dawidowicz posted 17. Freshman outside hitter Paige Pridgeon had 12 kills and a match-high 19 digs. Junior setter Jessica Catelano had 33 assists while sophomore setter Julie Fye tallied 22. Freshman libero Nicole Baran had 14 digs.

For the Spartans Mindy Quimby notched 18 kills. Setters Morgan Bucciferro and Emily Sanders had 25 and 22 assists, respectively. Megan Healey had 15 digs on the defensive side.

UNF got out to an early lead, going up 11-7. The Spartans responded with a run to knot the match at 13. North Florida extended its lead at 18-16, but the two teams tied again at 19. That was the last tie of the match as UNF went on a 6-1 run to close out the set, winning 25-20 to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

Upstate came out strong in the second set, but the Ospreys tied the set at 10 behind the serving of junior defensive specialist Chelsea Rabe. The two teams traded points over the next several rallies as the set had 16 ties with the last at 25. Back-to-back kills by Dawidowicz followed by a kill from freshman middle blocker Marija Pantovic secured the set, 27-25 and gave the Ospreys a 2-0 match advantage.

Upstate and North Florida battled in the third set, keeping the score close early. The Spartans took their largest lead, up 5 and 19-14. UNF fought back to pull within one at 23-22, but a pair of miscues by the Ospreys gave Upstate the points for the 25-22 victory.

In the fourth set UNF got out front early, 10-7, but Upstate would not go away and tied the match at 11. The two teams would tie four more times before UNF went on a run to take a 19-17 lead off a Pridgeon ace. UNF held on to the lead until Upstate knotted the match at 22. The Ospreys and Spartans saw ties at 24 and 25, but Upstate was able to hold on to win the set 27-25 and knot the match at two sets each.

Upstate led from the beginning of the fifth set. UNF closed the gap to one at 13-12, but the Spartans were able to take the fifth set 15-12, securing the match.

The Ospreys will be back in action on Friday, Oct. 30 when they host Belmont at 7 p.m. in UNF Arena.