No. 4 Tampa Upends No. 17 Florida Southern 3-0

TAMPA, Fla. - The fourth-ranked University of Tampa volleyball team scored a big Sunshine State Conference victory over No. 17 Florida Southern by a 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-18) decision. The Spartans improve its record to 14-1 and remain perfect in SSC play at 5-0 while the Mocs drop to 10-6 and 3-2.

The Spartans never trailed in the first set as it raced to a 10-5 lead. The Mocs cut the deficit to two at 11-9 after a trio of Spartan errors forcing Tampa to take a timeout. The move worked as UT went on a 5-0 run after the break to distance itself and went on to win 25-20.

Tampa's offense came alive in the second game as it downed 18 kills, from six different Spartans, at an incredible .552 hitting percentage. UT saw its biggest lead of the match, eight, towards the end of the set as it won 25-17.

The final set saw a close game as it was tied at 14, when junior Melissa Vanderhall slammed a kill to spark a 6-0 and put Tampa on top for good as it went on to win 25-18. The win extends the Spartans home streak over the Mocs to 18 straight victories.

Vanderhall finished as Tampa's leading scorer as she totaled 15 kills at a blistering .520 percentage. She ended with 17.5 points as she added three blocks in the contest. Freshman Jessica Yingling was the only other player in the match with double-figure kills as she put down 11 and also had a solo block. Kaleigh Cunningham kept the Tampa efficiency up as she scored seven kills at a .417 rate. Camille Hanks and Sam Macks each finished with a .500 attack percentage with six and four kills, respectively. Danielle Selkridge finished five of six to round out the Spartans over .400.

UT ended the night with 50 kills at a .415 mark and limited FSC to 28 kills at a .115 clip. Junior setter Meghan Sherman handed out over 30 assists for the fifth consecutive match with 35.

Julie Howlett was the only player in the match with double-digit digs with 15 as seven other Spartans recorded at least one. UT out-blocked Florida Southern 9-2 as Selkridge had three, and Macks and Cunningham finished with two each.

The Mocs were led by Kelly Sherman who notched eight kills while committing only one error to give her a .438 hitting percentage. Natalie Arvizu and Julia Borecka each had five.

The Spartans are back in action this Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. as they take on No. 23 Saint Leo (14-2, 5-0) for first place in the SSC. UT will offer live stats and webcast through www.tampaspartans.com. Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans). UT also offers eScores, which is a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events.