| Tournament Central

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Freshman Stephanie Spencer logged 14 kills in her collegiate debut and added 13 more in the Eagles' second match of the day as Georgia Southern split two volleyball matches at the FAU Invitational Friday.

The Eagles swept Binghamton 3-0 (25-20, 25-11, 25-20) in the season opener and fell 3-2 (10-25, 25-18, 25-23, 23-25, 11-15) to Stetson in their second match.

Katie Bange returned to the court to post 17 kills, 16 digs and 11 blocks in the two matches, and Alex Beecher collected 49 digs on the day. Lauren Reichard tallied nine kills and 11 blocks, and Kat Minnerly posted 67 assists in the two contests.
 

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The Story vs. Binghamton
The Eagles tallied nine blocks and 47 digs as a team and held the Bearcats to .029 hitting, including negative hitting percentages in the second and third sets. Spencer led the Eagles with 14 kills, and Ashley Jones posted a career-high 11.
 

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The Story vs. Stetson
After dropping the first set 25-10, the Eagles rallied to win the next two sets to open a 2-1 lead in the match. Georgia Southern led 22-20 in the fourth after a kill by Bange, but Stetson outscored the Eagles 5-1 the rest of the way to tie the match. With the score tied 8-8 in the fifth, Madison Fitzsimmons posted two kills in a 3-0 hatter run, and another Fitzsimmons kill, followed by an ace by Michelle Kastner, made the margin 13-9. Madison Akins put down a ball to make the score 14-10, and an Eagle hitting error gave Stetson the 3-2 win.
 

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Quotables from Coach Dustin Wood
"We played well this morning against Binghamton, and I was happy with the result. We blocked and played great defense against Stetson, but we couldn't connect with the middles and were off in every aspect offensively. Our defense kept us in the match, but our offense couldn't get going. We're looking at film tonight to see what changes we could make to get better to improve our offense tomorrow."
 

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Next Up
The Eagles take on Bethune-Cookman Saturday at 1 p.m. before facing host FAU in the nightcap at 6 p.m. Both matches are part of the FAU Invitational.

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