DeLand, Fla. -- Stetson staved off five set points in the third set and rallied from a six-point deficit in the fourth set to defeat UNF 3-1 (25-20, 23-25, 32-30, 25-22) in an Atlantic Sun Conference match Saturday afternoon at the Edmunds Center.
The Hatters (10-6) completed a two-game weekend sweep to improve to 2-1 in conference play.
"It was huge," Stetson head coach Kristina Hernandez said. "I think it will be helpful for us as we go down the road. These were two really tough matches for us. We really had to be patient and win some really tough sets."
Madison Akins led the team with 19 kills and Jessica Armstrong tallied 16 kills off the bench. Kayla Weller picked up a career-high 59 assists.
The teams split the first two sets, and Stetson led 24-20 late in the third set. UNF (5-12, 0-3) scored the next five points to push Stetson to the brink. The Hatters managed to stay alive five times over the next 10 points before finishing off a 32-30 win.
In the fourth set, the Hatters used a 8-0 run behind the serving of McKenna Foster to rally from a 17-11 deficit. Akins finished the match with her 19th kill to allow Stetson to capture the victory.
"I felt like our serving got us some really important runs at some really important times, especially when we were down in the fourth set," Hernandez said. "McKenna went back there and created a lot of opportunities for us. She had a couple aces and we were able to get some good balls off of defense and create some points. Our serving was a really key factor for us tonight."
Foster served four of Stetson's season-high 11 aces. She also recorded 12 kills and six blocks.
Weller added 17 digs to her 58 assists for her second straight double-double.
"Her defense has improved tremendously," Hernandez said about Weller. "She had 17 digs (Saturday) and double digit digs (Friday night) as well. Everyone keeps picking on her defensively, it is the only way to slow us down, but she is responding very well and doing a really good job of leading us on the floor."
Alexa Drost picked up 20 digs for the second straight match (22 Friday). Alexis Villa had 12 digs and Akins recorded 10 digs.
North Florida blocked 18 Hatter attack attempts in the match.
Stetson will visit Kennesaw State and USC Upstate next weekend.
