SAVANNAH, Ga. - The Embry-Riddle Eagles played one of their best matches of the season on Wednesday, October 3, but were unable to come up with the victory being edged by the Savannah College of Art & Design Bees, 3-1 (25-30, 30-28, 29-31, 28-30).
The Eagles suffered their eighth loss of the season, now 8-8 and 4-3 in the FSC. The Bees move to 11-1 overall and 8-1 in the FSC.
SCAD settled into a comfortable lead at 18-11 in the first game but lost their momentum which gave ERAU the opportunity to capitalize. Two back-to-back kills from Corey Dobridnia started the Eagles' strike. Marissa Gonzales also aided with two kills and at the service line bringing the team back to within one at 24-23. SCAD's Heather Friend ended Gonzales's serving stint with a kill, then served the next four points for SCAD, that ultimately led the team to take game one.
ERAU scored first in game two, and never gave up the lead (the score was tied three times), winning the tight race 30-28. The beginning of game three was a back and forth battle for points, where the score stayed within one point until Savannah Trakes took the ball in hand and served four straight points for the Eagles, giving the Eagles the largest lead of the the game at 22-17. The Bee's came back to tie at 23, as Brittany Steward served five points for the Bees, aided by ERAU mistakes on the attack. The Eagles had the first chance to capitalize on the third game, 29-28, but were unable to take the victory as a kill by Chayla Grosser put SCAD back in the running where Cristina Payne finished the game with two consecutive kills.
The Bees took their momentum from game three into game four taking a 10-6 lead before head coach Joslynn Gallop took an Eagle time-out. Savannah Trakes served two of her team leading six service aces en route to tying the game up at 13. Stewart's serves were again like poison to the Eagles as she put SCAD in the lead once again, going up 19-14. Trakes again stepped to the service line with the Eagles down 27-22, she served the team back to within three, with another ace and was also aided by kills from Dobrindia and Janelle Marinos. SCAD had a chance for game point at 29-26, but gave up the ball to the Eagles when Rachel Ridder served two points to put the game at 29-28. SCAD's Chayla Grosser pulled out a huge block to win the match for the Bees on the next play.
Trakes led the Eagles with 11 kills, six aces and 15 digs. Marino's matched Trakes in kills, while charting 12 digs. Dobrindia hit a stellar .471, completing 8 of 17 attacks, and marking no attack errors. Gonzales marked 44 assists, had seven digs and five kills.
The Eagles will host Warner Southern College on Friday, October 5 at 7 p.m., at the ICI Center. The teams last saw each other on September 7, when the Eagles won the match in five games.
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