DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The Embry-Riddle University volleyball team remained unbeaten in Florida Sun Conference play improving to 5-0 in the league after a doubleheader sweep of Northwood University (Fla.) 3-0 (30-26, 30-24, 30-24) and Edward Waters College (Fla.) 3-0 (30-10, 30-7, 30-10) Saturday afternoon.
"We are happy to be undefeated in the conference at this point of the season, but we need to bring a much better game to the court when we play our next four matches against the top teams in our conference," Gallop said. "I know we are capable of playing better and we have seen it in our practices, we just need to find a way to bring that level of play and intensity to game situations."
Against Northwood (4-11 overall, 2-5 FSC), April Ebanks hit .478 with 12 kills and seven total blocks, while her middle blocking counterpart Jenn Meglic hit .368 with 10 kills and five blocks to lead ERAU (10-11, 5-0 FSC) to the victory. Defense was critical in the win for Embry-Riddle which hit just .156 for the match and ERAU was up to the challenge recording 65 digs in three games paced by former Seabreeze standout rachel Ridder with 15, while three other Eagles posted double-figure dig totals including Savannah Trakes with 14, Jenni Nelsen with 12 and Marissa Gonzales with 11. The defensive effort continued at the net as the Blue and Gold posted 12 total team blocks with 20 block assists paced by Ebanks and Meglic, while Mia Jaramillo added six block assists.
Northwood couldn't do much against the defensive wall ERAU put up and finished the match hitting -.031. Karlene Diaz led the way for the Seahawks with nine kills, while three players finished with 11 digs apiece including Alyssa Breviario, Danielle Senople and Ashley McDannold.
The second match of the day saw Embry-Riddle overpower Edward Waters as the Eagles hit .368 as a team for the match led by Meglic's 11 kills and .647 hititng percentage. Kristen Hassett recorded 21 assists, three service aces and four digs in the victory.
Edward Waters (4-6, 0-6 FSC) fell behind early in all three games and struggled to get on track offensively hitting -.234 for the match with seven kills and 22 attack errors in 64 attempts. Ridder got a rare chance to swing on the outside and may give Gallop another weapon, as the junior transfer who was an outside hitter for Transylvania University (Ky.) the past two seasons, finished with five kills in seven attempts.
Embry-Riddle hits the road on Saturday Oct. 7 at 12 p.m. at No. 15 Savannah College of Art and Design in a battle to claim an outright lead in the conference as SCAD is 8-0 and the Eagles are 5-0.
