PENSACOLA, Fla. – The 2021 season came to an end for the Embry-Riddle volleyball team on Friday night with a 3-1 defeat (25-23, 25-23, 22-25, 25-17) at the hands of No. 5 West Florida in the semifinals of the NCAA II South Region Championship. The Eagles, who were seeded fourth in the tournament, end the year with a 26-7 record, while the top-seeded Argonauts improve to 35-1.
Sam Lanning finished with five kills and a team-high seven blocks, which gives her a season total of 174 blocks, breaking the program record for blocks in a single season. The previous record was held by April Ebanks, who tallied 169 blocks in 2006.
Cameron Gilleland led the Blue and Gold in kills (14) and service aces (4) and added nine digs, while
Jaden McBride had 11 kills, five digs, and five blocks.
Aly Freeland picked up a team-high 12 digs, while
Emily Weaver registered a team-best 42 assists to go along with 11 digs.
ERAU scored the first three points of the match and ran out to an early 11-5 lead in the opening frame. The Eagles held a 19-13 lead before UWF rattled off five straight points to cut the margin to one (19-18), and a couple points later the home team tied things up 20-20. A Lanning kill gave the Blue and Gold a 22-21 lead, but the Argonauts responded with three straight points as part of a 4-1 run to finish the set, 25-23.
Set two saw West Florida take an early 4-1 lead, which it would maintain throughout most of the set. A block by
Jenna Bishop capped a 4-1 Eagle run that tied things up at 14, but UWF answered with a 3-0 run of its own to retake the lead, 17-14. Another block, this time from Bishop and McBride, capped another 4-1 run that drew ERAU level at 23. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the Argonauts took the next two points to win the set, 25-23.
West Florida went on a 6-0 run in the early stages of the third to take a 13-8 lead, but a Gilleland kill sparked a 5-0 response from the Eagles, knotting things up at 13. UWF scored the following three points and held a slim lead for a while, until back-to-back Gilleland kills tied the set at 21. The Argonauts scored on the ensuing rally, but another Gilleland kill tied it at 22 and sparked what turned out to be a set-clinching 4-0 spurt as ERAU won the frame, 25-22.
The Argonauts opened the fourth set on a 4-0 run that quickly became an 11-4 advantage. A 3-0 spurt, keyed by a kill and an ace from Gilleland, brought the Blue and Gold to within three at 14-11, but that was the closest ERAU would come for the rest of the match. A late 5-0 run pushed the UWF lead to nine (23-14), and a quick three-point spurt from the Eagles wasn't enough as West Florida took the set, 25-17, to clinch the match three sets to one.
Embry-Riddle's season comes to an end, but not before the Eagles set NCAA II-era program records for wins (26) and conference wins (15), posted the program's highest finish in the Sunshine State Conference (third), and recorded the program's first-ever NCAA II Tournament victory.
