Troy volleyball falls on the road at the Florida Invite

The Troy Trojans volleyball team took a trip to Gainesville to play in the Florida Invite against the Florida Atlantic Owls and the No. 10 Florida Gators. The Trojans struggled on the weekend, dropping both matches to the Florida teams in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

The Trojans won one set on Saturday and played close throughout against FAU, but Florida swept them on Sunday. The loss to FAU was Troy’s second match of the season to go more than three sets. FAU narrowly won two of the first three sets by a point differential of only three, before handily winning the fourth to claim the match.

The Owls featured a well-balanced attack that saw double-digit kills from four players, with each hitting over .500 percent in Libby Ashline, Layne Sequoia, Olivia Hart and Anna Hartman. The team hit .400 percent in the match, with Maya Van Heyst running the show andtotaling 58 assists.

The Trojans were led in kills by Kalina Calvillo for the fifth time in five sets with 15, and she was joined by Ashlynn Axtell and Isabella Ruether with 12 and 10, respectively. This was a career high for Axtell in her third season with the Trojans, as she leads the team in hitting percentage for players with multiple sets played at .370.

The first set was plagued with errors for FAU, with 11 total from attacking and serving, which allowed Troy to stay in striking distance. However, the Owls found efficiency from Sequoia on the right side with five kills on seven swings, with the fifth tying the game at 22 and sparking the Owls’ 4-0 run to end the set.

A big part of Troy’s win in set two was a return of its serving prowess, with four aces as a team coming from Calvillo, Olivia Kwiatkowski and Madison Marx, compared to only two errors. Marx served her ace to finish the set with an ace in extra points.

The third set was back and forth. It wasthe ultimate momentum decider of the match, featuring 11 ties and three lead changes. Hart and Hartman combined for 11 kills on 15 swings for the Owls to give them the 25-23 advantage. Then FAU jumped out to a 7-0 lead in set four and never looked back.

Florida’s size and athleticism clearly affected Troy in the match on Sunday, as it hit .489 compared to the Trojans .204. The Gators also totaled 10 blocks, while the Trojans only had one. Alec Rothe led the Gators in these aspects with six blocks and 10 kills on 11 attempts.

The freshmen showed out for Troy on the weekend. Ruether led Sunday in kills, as the freshman notched 10 kills for the third consecutive match. Kenzly Foote contributed a service ace both days for her third and fourth consecutive matches with an ace, with Haley Nash having her first match with two aces on Sunday and tied her career high with five assists against FAU.

Throughout the first set, the Trojans stayedwithin five points but never held a lead. The Gators minimized mistakes with only one attacking error while Troy had seven. Ruether and Calvillo started the match well, each with four kills.

The Gators got out to a 10-2 lead in the second set behind early Troy errors and Kamryn Chaney’s pair kills for Florida. Kayla Baetzel checked in for the Trojans to give a spark and recorded her season-high in digs and assists with two and four.

The third set saw the most back-and-forth competition, with six ties and three lead changes as the Trojans fought early in the set. The Gators went on a 5-0 run starting at 14-12, creating a gap too big for Troy to overcome despite late runs.

This weekend brings Troy 2-4 on the season after dropping three consecutive games away from home. The Trojans look to get back on the right track at home this week with the Trojan Invitational against Murray State, The Citadel and Northwestern State. The Trojans' first match of the Invitational will be against Murray State on Spet. 17 at 6 p.m. in Trojan Arena.