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Boxscore (PDF)
Tournament Central
 
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Playing in front of its energetic home crowd for the first time this season, University of North Florida volleyball posted a 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-22) sweep of Florida A&M to open the Radisson/North Florida Invitational at UNF Arena on Friday night.
 
“We're definitely excited to get back to playing on our home court and playing in front of our fans,” said head coach Steve Loeswick. “The crowd tonight was great and hopefully they had a good time and they'll come back for our matches tomorrow and future weekends.
 
“We had to play through a little bit of nerves and over-excitement,” said Loeswick, “but when we settled down, we played some really good volleyball.”
 
The Ospreys were solid on both offense and defense throughout the evening. A trio of Ospreys reached double-digits in kills. Carolyn Jenkins recorded a match-high 16 kills, while Dagnija Medina and Paige Pridgeon each had 10. Pridgeon also added 13 digs for her second double-double of the season. Meanwhile, Britt Claessens put up 42 assists for the UNF offense.
 
Defensively, four Ospreys had 10-or more digs. In addition to Pridgeon's 13, Nicole Baran dug up a match-best 24 balls. Julie Trembley added 11, while Cari Whitmire had 10. Additionally, UNF limited Florida A&M to under 10 kills in both the first and second sets.
 
Powerful hitting set the tone for the first set. UNF hit .311 and registered 17 kills. Up by five, a Jenkins kill sparked a four-point run that allowed the Ospreys to take a nine-point, 20-11 lead. UNF's nine-point advantage was its largest of the entire match.  Florida A&M attempted to cut into UNF's lead, but a kill from Jenkins sealed a 25-18 first set win and put UNF up 1-0 in the match.
 
Both the second and the third sets were closely contested. In the second set, UNF rallied after trailing midway through and tied the set at 18-18 on a Pridgeon service ace. UNF and Florida A&M went back and forth on points until consecutive Jenkins kills followed by a critical block by Jenkins and Claessens put the Ospreys up 23-21. UNF ultimately clinched the set with a Baran ace and take a 2-0 lead.
 
Neither team built much of a lead throughout the third set, which included 13 ties. The final tie of the set came when Florida A&M tied it at 21-21 on a Pamela Barrera kill. However, kills from Marija Pantovic and Medina broke the tie to put the Ospreys up by two. Florida A&M made it a one-point set on a Diana Gonzales kill, but Medina made a kill and then served up the match-winning ace.
 
UNF closes out the Radisson/North Florida Invitational tomorrow with a pair of matches. At Noon, the Ospreys host Presbyterian, who won its Friday match against Davidson 3-2. Then UNF concludes the tournament against Davidson at 7 p.m., where the first 250 fans to the match will receive a free Carrabba's Appetizer coupon.