West Palm Beach, Fla.- After stumbling in the first game, the Palm Beach Atlantic University women’s volleyball team stormed back on Tuesday evening to take the final three games against Nova Southeastern University in front of a solid Sailfish following at Rubin Arena.

Going up against the heavy-hitting Sharks, the Sailfish didn’t lose their composure after dropping the first game on their home court and were able to polish off the Sharks in four games.

After falling 24-30 in the opening game, PBA took the next three by the scores of 30-23, 32-30, and 30-28.

Leading the way for PBA was double-digit kill performances by senior Ali Mitchell (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach HS) and junior Brittany Erickson (La Mesa, Calif./Christian HS) with 14 and 13 kills respectively. A balanced overall attack for head coach Nicole Carter’s Sailfish, senior Bia Santos (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Palm Beach CC) and freshman outside hitter Kristen Carroll (Billings, Mont./Billings HS) both chipped in nine kills on the evening.

Setting them up all night long was junior setter Emily Ryerson (Winter Springs, Fla./Winter Springs HS) who tallied 41 total assists in the four-game match victory.

Defensively the PBA back row once again stood strong as sophomore Jennifer Eldridge (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla./Dwyer HS) delivered 28 digs with Mitchell and Santos each adding 10 digs respectively.

After a 2-1 weekend record while playing at the Eckerd College Tournament in St. Petersburg, Florida, coach Carter was very pleased with her team’s efforts against NSU.

“I felt we’ve been getting better each match this season,” said the first-year leader of the Fish. “But tonight I felt we played with much more consistency and setting the tone was a big key. We didn’t allow them (NGU) to dictate the tempo of the game and I really felt we played our game tonight,” continued Carter.

Featured as PBA’s “Game of the Week”, tonight’s game helped put PBA students and fans in the seats but also proved to be a valuable asset to the young PBA squad.

“The crowd was unbelievable and it was obvious the girls fed off the energy of the crowd,” said Carter. “We’ve played pretty well on the road early on this year, but tonight’s crowd really helped give our team an advantage.”

Poised with a 5-3 record entering play on the night, the Sharks struggled with consistency after the game one victory. NSU’s big-time hitter, Melinda Gorman (Sarasota Fla./Booker HS) paced the attack with 15 kills followed by Aley Tallman (Wichita, Kan./UAB) with 14 and Paola Ruiz (Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico/St. Thomas Aquinas HS) with 13. Junior Valentina Petrova (Sofia, Bulgaria/Lees-McCrae College) collected 52 assists in the losing effort.

With the victory, PBA creeps over the .500 mark on the season at 5-4 and will take their momentum into their next match which will be played at cross-town rival, Northwood University on Friday, September 7th. The match is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m.

PBA returns home the following day on September 8th, when they play host to Flagler College with a 7:00 p.m. start time.