Panthers Honor Senior Members in Final Home Match
MELBOURNE, Fla. The Florida Tech Panthers (2-30, 0-16) fell 3-0 against Sunshine State Conference Opponent Eckerd College Tritons (21-13, 8-8). Despite a tough fought battle on the part of Tech, the Tritons took all three sets 30-22, 30-20 and 30-17.
In the pre-game ceremony, the Crimson and Gray honored its two departing seniors Jenny McCoy (Titusville, Fla.) and Megan Konopnicki (Plano, Tex.) along with recognizing the two graduating seniors from Eckerd in Mary McNichol (Palm Harbor, Fla.) and Kelly Morrisroe (Jensen Beach, Fla.). Each girl was presented with their school colors in both balloons and M & M’s with the Panthers also receiving roses from their team.
Junior outside hitter Jessie Metzger (Oxford, Conn.) had a big night for Tech hitting .333 while leading the Panthers with 11 kills. Seniors’ Konopnicki and McCoy each added 5 and 4 kills respectively. Konopnicki also had nine digs.
Junior setter Amanda Boyce (Madison, Wis.) finished with 23 assists and eight digs hitting .500 percent for the night. Boyce tied Konopnicki and junior middle blocker Leigh Ann Brown (Winter Park, Fla.) with five kills for the match.
Brown also notched a career and season high with seven block assists and one block solo. Freshman Frankie Brown (Panama City, Fla.) also had a career high with seven block assists. Tech won out at patrolling the net with 10 team blocks to Eckerd’s seven team blocks.
Freshman Libero Melissa Reinders led all players with seventeen digs finishing her freshman campaign nineteen shy of 600 digs.
McCoy concluded her career with 543 kills and 151 blocks while Konopnicki tallied a career 613 kills and 878 digs.
Eckerd’s Lydee Benoit (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Leigh Badoyen (Virginia Beach, Va.) led all hitters each with 13 kills for the night. Benoit notched a double double with 15 digs, while Badoyen tallied a .355 attack percentage. Setter Shannon Ruby (Littleton, Co.) had 42 assists. Sophomore outside Angela White (Virginia Beach, Va.) led all attackers hitting .412 for the three games.
Both teams accumulated their best attack percentage in the second game with Eckerd hitting a team .366 and Tech grabbing a .154 attack percentage. With the win Eckerd should advance to the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament next weekend.
Short Box Score (Match)
2006 Florida Tech Volleyball
Eckerd vs Florida Tech (11/04/06 at Melbourne, Fla.)
Eckerd def. Florida Tech 30-22,30-20,30-17
Eckerd (21-13, 8-8) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Leigh Badoyen 13-0-2; Lydee
Benoit 13-1-1; Kati Therriault 8-0-1; Angela White 8-0-2; Keisha
Carter 5-0-5; Shannon Ruby 3-3-1; Marin Gibson 2-2-0; Totals 52-6-7.0.
(Assists) – Shannon Ruby 42. (Dig leaders) – Lydee Benoit 15; Angela
White 11; Kristy Busse 9; Marin Gibson 9
Florida Tech (2-30, 0-16) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Jessie Metzger 11-0-0;
Leigh Ann Brown 5-1-8; Megan Konopnicki 5-0-2; Amanda Boyce 5-0-0;
Jenny McCoy 4-0-2; Frankie Brown 3-0-7; Melissa Reinders 2-0-0; Katie
Dobek 0-1-0; Totals 35-2-10.0. (Assists) – Amanda Boyce 23. (Dig
leaders) – Melissa Reinders 17; Megan Konopnicki 9; Amanda Boyce 8
Site: Melbourne, Fla. (Clemente Center)
Date: 11/04/06 Attend: 117 Time: 1:30
Referees: Jim Keesling, Jen Gale
