No. 3 Spartans Claw Victory from Panthers

Melbourne, Fla. – The No. 3 Tampa Spartans secure a win on the road against the Panthers of Florida Tech

Final Score: Tampa 3 (1: 25-17, 2: 25-20, 3: 21-25, 4: 25-17), Florida Tech 1

Records: No. 3 Tampa (14-0, 8-0 SSC), Florida Tech (5-10, 1-6 SSC)

Location: Clemente Center | Melbourne, Fla.

HOW IT HAPPENED: 

First Set: The Spartans maintained a lead for the entirety of the first set; starting with early back-and-forth action, a 5-1 run in the middle of the set gave Tampa the 16-11 advantage. Nathaly Perez closed out with set with back-to-back kills, marking her third of the set. The Spartans had a hitting percentage of .302 in the first set, compared to the Panthers, who hit .200. | Score: 25-17 Tampa

Second Set: After starting the second set with 4-0 run, the Spartan lead, aided by 3 kills from Perez and 1 from Kalli Cors, expanded to 7-2. However, the Panthers kept on and eventually came within 1 point of the lead, at 11-10, which ultimately signaled a timeout from Coach Catanach. Florida Tech's coach, Jordan Willis, decided to call two timeouts later in the set, as Tampa lead 18-15 and 21-17, respectively. The Spartans closed out the set, scoring the final 3 points, by way of kills from Cors and Zoey Seput, as well as an attack error from the Panthers. | Score: 25-20 Tampa

Third Set: The third set started much closer than the two before it, with 7 ties within the first 24 points. The Panthers even took their first lead of the night at 13-12, but the Spartans swiftly responded with a 3-0 run that was only stopped by timeout from the Panthers. Tampa regained the lead but soon found themselves on the bad end of an 8-3 run and called two timeouts of their own, down 22-18. The Spartans got back within 2 points of the lead, at 23-21, but the Panthers presevered and were able to close out the set.  | Score: 25-21 Florida Tech

Fourth Set: Looking for a change in the match's momentum, the Spartans started the fourth set with the first 3 points and later went up 7-3 as the set headed into a Panther's timeout. Later in the set, the Spartans went on a 5-1 run that was made up of errors from the Panthers and kills from Jenna Davis and Perez, making the score 17-12, into another timeout from the Panthers. Mackenzie Dufresne noted her 7th block of the night and JJ Ramirez, last week's Sunshine State Conference Defensive Player of the Week, recorded her 20th dig in the fourth and final set. Davis ended the final set, as well as the match, with two out of three of the Spartan's last points, tallying 2 kills.  | Score: 25-17 Tampa

INSIDE THE STATS:

• Emily Noe and Seput recorded 22 assists each
• The Spartans out blocked the Panthers 13-2
• Davis and Dufresne tallied hitting percentages of .600 and 6.40, respectiveley