Due West, SC – After easily winning the opening set 25 to 17, Erskine looked ready to cruise to victory tonight over Barton College. Instead Erskine needed to stage a dramatic comeback in the last two sets to win the match 3 to 2.
After dropping the first set, Barton won the next two sets 25 to 19 and 25 to 22 behind the strong play of junior Melissa Ritter. In the 4th set, both teams had trouble finding an offensive rhythm as the lead swung back forth with neither team holding more than a 3 point lead. With the game tied at 19 to 19, Erskine was able to grab a two point lead behind kills by Liz Massey (Greenville, SC/Eastside H.S.) and Alison Albers (Goodhue, MN/Iowa Lakes CC). Following a couple of errors by both teams, Erskine’s Erin Tovo (Aiken, SC/Aiken H.S.) blasted a kill off a Barton defender to seal the victory 25 to 23. In the final set, Barton immediately leaped out to a 4 to 0 lead on a thunderous spike by Melissa Ritter and a service ace by Chancey Sebranek, forcing Erskine Coach Heather Vahjen to call timeout. Erskine slowly crawled back into the game, tying it at 12 to 12 on a well placed service ace by Bailey Thornton (Pauline, SC/Dorman H.S.). Liz Massey followed it up with a strong spike to give the Fleet their first lead at 13 to 12. After trading points on errors, Alison Albers would score the final point, giving Erskine the comeback victory.
On the evening, both teams struggled on the attack as Erskine had 22 errors to Barton’s 24. Leading the Fleet was Liz Massey as she recorded another double-double with 15 kills and 16 digs. Melissa Ritter, currently 2nd in the Conference in kills per set, lead Barton with an amazing 22 kills, including 10 in the 2nd set. Despite Ritter’s tremendous day, the Erskine defense did a wonderful job amassing 14 blocks and 69 digs. At the net, Alison Albers had 4 blocks while Erin Tovo contributed 3 blocks. On the backline, Libero Brooke Dodge (Duncan, SC/Byrnes H.S.) lead the Fleet with 17 digs while Bailey Thornton and Julie Jackson (Greenville, SC/Southside Christian School) made some spectacular saves with 11 digs apiece.
With the win, Erskine improves to 6-4 in Conference Carolinas (8-11 overall) while Barton slips to 5-5 in conference and 10-12 overall. Erskine is back in action tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. against Mount Olive College.
