DeLand, Fla. -- If the Hatters earn a berth to the NCAA Championship at the end of the season, they may potentially look back at Saturday's 3-2 come-from-behind victory over FIU as a key match that got them there.
Trailing 2-0 after the 4 and 5 seeds played, Stetson rallied for wins at each of the top three seeds to defeat the 10th-ranked Panthers Saturday morning at the Stetson Beach Invitational.
Kristin Lind and Rachel Noble clinched the match at the 2 seed with a 15-11 win in the third set. That win came just moments after Kaylee Anderson and Emily Carroll tied the match for the Hatters with a 15-10 third-set win at the 3 seed.
"I think our 1-2-3 did a good job of just focusing on their match, and not looking around and seeing what everybody else was doing, and just getting it done," Stetson head coach Kristina Hernandez said. "That speaks volumes that our 1-2-3 can take that pressure. As a team last year, that was something that we did very well, but we had a very veteran group. Now we have three freshmen in our top seeds that have that mindset, I think that is a good sign for us."
At the 1 seed, Vendy Strakova and Sara Putt won 23-21, 21-16 to cut the FIU lead to 2-1. Anderson and Carroll dropped their first set 21-16 before bouncing back with a 21-16 win in set 2. Lind and Noble also dropped their first set 21-18 before coming back with a 21-15 win in set 2.
The comeback gave ninth-ranked Stetson (16-4) a valuable win over a key rival in the East Region. The NCAA Championship will feature the top three teams from the East and the West Regions plus two wild card teams that could come from either region.
"Especially with us having a tough loss to UNF, we really needed to win against FAU and FIU to have that (postseason) opportunity still there," Hernandez said. "We still have a long way to go in our season, but this gives us good positioning to be third in the region."
FIU dropped to 5-5.
In the second match of the day, the Hatters fell to fourth-ranked UCLA 3-2.
Stetson's top two seeds each won in three sets. Strakova and Putt earned a 22-20, 16-21, 15-11 win to improve to 19-0 on the season. Lind and Noble won by scores of 21-13, 15-21, 15-13.
UCLA (9-4) won at the 3, 4 and 5 seeds.
The Hatters completed the Stetson Beach Invitational with a 2-2 mark. The team will travel to the FIU Surf and Turf Invitational next weekend.
