Volleyball Splits Tournament Opening Day

Palm Beach State came into the State/NJCAA Division II Gulf District Championship Tournament looking for some traction. The Panthers went 1-3 to finish out the regular season but did win their their last match against St. Petersburg College, 3-1.

What happened in the regular season was irrelevant as all teams started with a blank slate on Thursday. Palm Beach and Florida State College at Jacksonville opened up the tournament at 9 AM with a matchup of the state's #4 and #5 seeded teams. The Panthers took both matches from Florida State College at Jacksonville during the regular season by an impressive 6-1 margin. Palm Beach would lose the opening set of the match 25-20, but that seemed to light a fire under the team that would eventually propel them to victory. PBSC won 3 straight sets, including an impressive 25-15 win in the 2nd set, which was quite the response to their opening set loss. 

Rita Gonzalez Cuevas Campos led the team with 15 kills. She picked quite the time for perhaps her best match of the season. Nina Vallesi and Dena Otte also contributed 10 and 11 kills, respectively. Angelina Botolino, returned to the lineup and made her presence known. She led the club with 2 solo blocks and 4 assisted blocks. Her play in the middle was sorely missed down the stretch. Natalie Faulkner, fresh off an award for the All-State Team, set the team up (quite literally) on offense with 49 assists. Darlenis Medina, who also received an All-State award, led the club with 22 DIGS, as one would expect.

In match 2, the Panthers matched up against #1 seeded St. John's River State College. Palm Beach took the opening set from St. John's River, who looked a bit stunned coming out of the gate. From there, St. John's won the next 3 sets to take the match, 3-1. PBSC did put up quite the fight in set 4, potentially forcing the decisive 5th set, as the set went back and forth with both teams going on "runs". Errors ultimately doomed the Panthers as they could not quite pull off the comeback victory.

Palm Beach will play the winner of the 9 AM game on Friday, which is scheduled to start at 2:00 ET.

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