The Stetson Sand Volleyball team picked up a pair of road wins on Wednesday, defeating Florida Atlantic by identical 4-1 scores in Deerfield Beach, Fla.
Playing on beach courts alongside the Atlantic Ocean, the Hatters picked up wins at the no. 1 through no. 4 spots in both matches to improve to 12-2 on the season.
"Overall, I was very pleased with all of our pairs and how tough they played today," Stetson head coach Kristina Hernandez said. "We had to work with the wind and hot sand but it didn't affect our performance which I was happy to see. We responded aggressively today and were able to bounce back from our last matches."
At the top seed, Kaley Melville and Kaylee Anderson won their first match 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) and won their second match 2-1 (26-24, 21-18, 15-5).
"Mel and Kaylee were a strong pair today at the one seed," Hernandez said. "In the second round they lost a tough first set 26-24 and responded aggressively the next two sets to secure the two wins."
Catherine Coston and Savannah Byl cruised to a pair of 2-0 wins at the no. 2 seed.
"Cat and Savanah were also strong today at the '2', and communicated well during tough points," Hernandez said. "I was happy to see them bounce back after tough losses to UNF."
In the no. 3 position, Rachael Farrell and Julie Bassett rallied to win their first match 2-1 (14-21, 24-22, 15-11) before taking the second match 2-0 (22-20, 21-4).
"Julie and Rachael also played great today," Hernandez said. "They took a lot of risks offensively and were very aggressive at the end of each set to secure the win."
At the four seed, Maren Rygh and Jordann Dierickx won both their matches by 2-1 margins.
"Maren and Jordan battled at the '4' and won both rounds in three sets," Hernandez said. "In the second match they were down 6-0 in the third and kept their cool and grinded out the win."
Tiffany Creamer and Kristin Lind dropped a 2-0 decision in the number five spot in the first match, while Madison Tormey and Stephanie Marin fell 2-1 as the fifth seed in the second match.
The Hatters return to action next Tuesday at Mercer in their final A-Sun regular season matches of the season.
