LAKELAND, Fla.—Following the first two sets, it looked as if Southeastern and Ave Maria were destined for a five-set thriller.
However, the Fire hit .328 as a team in the last two sets to come away with an impressive 3-1 win over the Gyrenes to improve to 2-1 in Sun Conference play and 11-7 overall.
Southeastern took the first set 25-21, using a 5-0 run to break a 6-6 tie early on. A 5-0 run in the second helped the Fire take a 6-3 lead, but the Gyrenes answered with a 6-1 run to go up 9-7. The set ended up going to extra points as the teams exchanged leads.
On the sixth set point for, Ave Maria came away with the 30-28 win.
That's when Southeastern found another gear hitting .304 in the third with 16 kills and .367 with 15 kills in the fourth. It wasn't just the offense; the Fire defense held AMU to an attack percentage of just .005 over the last two sets with four blocks to close out the match with 25-15 and 25-11 wins.
Freshman
Sandy Cao had a monster night, filling up the stat sheet with a career-best 26 kills and .400 attacking percentage. She also had 11 digs, a pair of assists, an ace, and was in on two of SEU's six blocks.
Kennedy Jones also had a double-double effort of 17 kills and 15 digs. Senior
Jordyn Stiger added 11 kills and was in on three blocks.
Holly Kaczmarek had a team-best 33 digs with
Grace Petty adding 12 and
Alexandra Postlethwaite 11. Postlethwaite also added a team-best 53 assists in the match.
The Fire return to action Saturday afternoon at Florida Memorial.
