Spartans Travel to West Palm Beach
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Spartans set to for weekend clash in West Palm Beach.
About the Spartans: The Spartans are set to travel across the Sunshine State for their annual clash with PBA, amongst others. Tampa comes off an underwhelming 2-2 weekend in Louisiana and enters this weekend with an overall 9-9 record. Despite big wins over top-20 teams in No. 11 FAU and No. 17. South Carolina, Tampa drops out of the top-20 rankings after losses to unranked teams. Keely Hamilton and Madison Brunick, boast a 14-4 record on the season after a 4-0 weekend in Louisiana. Brunick and Hamilton along with Cassidy Ehrie and Hailey Peterson remain the only two Spartans pairings with a record above .500. Tampa takes on Spring Hill in their opening matchup of the weekend and once again looks to get over the .500 hump, as well as improve to 3-0 against the Badgers in series history.
About Spring Hill: The Badgers enter the weekend on a five-match win streak and an overall record of 10-8. Spring Hill has yet to match up against a ranked opponent but holds losses to both New Orleans and Stephen F. Austin, both of whom the Spartans took down last weekend. Spring Hill starts their weekend in West Palm with a clash against Tampa on Friday morning and looks to get their first win over the Spartans in program history.
About Tusculum: The Pioneers enter this weekend on a three-game skid but still manage to hold an overall record of 10-6. Similar to Spring Hill, Tusculum has yet to face any ranked opponents but holds two losses to Coastal Carolina, who received votes in the NCAA poll and gave the Spartans a tough matchup in their second home tournament of the year. The Pioneers' 2's-4's all hold 12 or more wins with five or fewer losses and provide a strong core group to back up their 1's. Tusculum starts their weekend Friday morning with a clash against Eckerd and will look to improve to 5-2 against Tampa Friday afternoon.
About PBA: The sailfish enter their third home tournament of the year with a 9-12 record and have lost their last seven matches, five of which however came at the hands of ranked opponents. Similar to the Spartans, the Sailfish have played a highly competitive schedule before looking to cool off in preparation for the AVCA National Championships. PBA holds three losses to No. 12 FIU, two to No. 16 FAU, one to No. 1 USC, and another to No. 5 TCU. The Sailfish take on Spring Hill on Friday morning to open their weekend. On Saturday morning the Sailfish will clash with the Spartans for the 10th time all time, Tampa holding a commanding 7-2 series history record.
About Barry: As might be expected for a program in its inaugural season, the Buccaneers only hold one win with an overall record of 1-11. Their lone win of the season came in Lakeland, FL against St. Johns River, and similar to PBA held multiple losses to No. 12 FIU. Barry opens their weekend with their first program matchup against Tusculum, and square off against the Spartans in another first-time meeting on Saturday afternoon.
This Weekend's Schedule: The Spartans square off against Spring Hill and Tusculum on Friday 3/22, at 7:30 AM and 1:20 PM respectively. Then Tampa takes on PBA and Barry at 1:30 PM and 4:30 PM on Saturday 3/23.