BOX SCORE
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida volleyball team rallied back to claim the third set after dropping the first two, but Seattle held off the Ospreys in the fourth to claim a 3-1 (15-25, 17-25, 25-22, 21-25) win on Thursday night in non-conference action at UNF Arena.
“If we would have come out in set one like we started playing in set three it would have been a different match,” said head coach Kevin Campbell. “We came out flat and Seattle took advantage of it. I was proud of the way we played in sets three and four.”
Leading the Ospreys (5-18) was Paige Pridgeon with 16 kills. Dagnija Medina added nine kills while Jessica Catelano and Marshay Greenlee had eight kills each. Britt Claessens posted 40 assists. Defensively, Nicole Baran racked up a match-high 21 digs and Medina tallied four blocks.
“Kelsey Smith came off the bench and played well for us tonight,” said Campbell. “Nicole also had a good match, she changed the tone of the match for us with her serving. Our setter and middle connection was really solid with the middles getting a lot of looks tonight.”
For the Redhawks (11-12) Cristin Richards posted 19 kills. Sarah Jaeckel and Janet Beckerman added 12 and 10, respectively. Jamie Mellis notched 41 assists. Emily Deleissegues had 11 digs.
Seattle came out strong in the first two sets as the Ospreys had trouble generating anything on the offensive side. The Redhawks held their largest lead at the end, up 11 (23-12) in the opening set. In the second set Seattle was ahead by 11 (24-13) at the end of the match, but UNF went on a late run to cut the gap to seven before the Redhawks scored their final point to take the 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third set the Ospreys came out on fire, jumping out to a 5-0 lead behind the serving of Baran. UNF took its largest lead at 19-11, but the Redhawks responded to cut the lead down to three (22-19). Seattle pulled within two at 23-21 and again at 24-22, but the Ospreys secured the final point to cut the Redhawk lead to 2-1 in the match.
In the fourth set the two teams kept it close, with the Redhawks took the early lead. UNF tied it up at nine, but were unable to take the lead. Seattle would pull ahead by three as the Ospreys stayed within striking distance, but were unable to make up the difference as the Redhawks took the set and the match.
The Ospreys will have seven days off before returning to the court for Atlantic Sun competition beginning on Friday, Oct. 29 against Lipscomb in Nashville, Tenn. at 7 p.m. UNF will stay in Nashville to face Belmont on Saturday, Oct. 30. at 3 p.m.
