WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.- The wins continue to pile up for the Palm Beach Atlantic University volleyball team as they swept a pair of opponents on Saturday to complete the Pepsi Bash at the Beach Tournament. Needing the minimum six sets, the Fish swept both Claflin (S.C.) University and Bentley (Mass.) University as they improve to 21-2 while pushing their win streak to 19 matches.

The team will welcome in Warner University and St. Thomas University, both from the Sun Conference of the NAIA this coming week as they take a break from NCAA Division II opponents.

Match One (PBA vs. Claflin University)

The Sailfish opened the day with a match at 12 pm versus Claflin who hails from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and is considered a regional opponent for PBA.

Palm Beach Atlantic would have little trouble in knocking off the Lady Panthers however as they cruised to 25-7, 25-17 and 25-16 wins to improve their tournament record to 3-0.

Elly Raush and Kelsey Fox led the way for PBA with eight kills in the match as PBA combined to hit a robust .341 as a team. Freshman Faith Rohn added in seven kills while fellow rookies Rachel Jones and Stephany Brown added in six and four kills respectively.

Freshman setter Alex Marszalek did much of the work for PBA as well with 18 assists to go along with 24 assists from sophomore starter Becca Acevedo.

Melissa Buckingham led all defensive performers with 15 digs while freshman Rachael Holehouse added in nine digs.

Claflin (12-7) was led by Keyarh Turner who produced six kills.

Match Two (PBA vs. Bentley University)

Up next on the schedule for the Sailfish was Bentley University who traveled to South Florida from Massachusetts and the Northeast-10 Conference.

The Falcons (7-13) gave the Fish a test at times as they limited PBA to a .287 hitting percentage while also producing a .212 average of their own.

In the end however it would be the Fish who would be victorious as they collected 26-16, 26-20 and 25-21 wins to close out the tournament on Saturday evening.

Senior Mariela Quesada, who was mostly rested during the Claflin match, came back strong against BU with a match-high 16 kills (.270 attacking percentage) while finishing with a double-double of 11 digs.

Acevedo was back as the regular setter and performed well once again with 36 assists to go with four digs. Buckingham kept her double-digit digs streak alive with 10 digs while Holehouse chipped in eight digs.

Following Quesada on the kills leaderboard was eight from Faith Rohn while Jones added in seven kills.

Brown and Raush were both very effective when called upon as each produced five kills with Brown managing her total in just six attacks and Raush was nearly as efficient with her total in only ten attacks.

Bentley was paced by Kelsey Buckner’s 10 kills while Lauren Colasanti and Kyana Miller each totaled 12 digs. Miller also added in 24 assists.