Roaring No. 2 Spartans Tame Lions

DADE CITY, Fla. – No. 2 Tampa Dominates Saint Leo In First Stop Of Road Trip

Final Score: Tampa 3 (1: 25-16, 2: 25-14, 3: 25-13), Saint Leo 0

Records: No. 3 Tampa (23-0, 13-0 SSC), Saint Leo (9-14, 4-10 SSC)

Location: Marion Bowman Activities Center | Saint Leo, Fla.

HOW IT HAPPENED: 

First Set: The Spartans and Lions opened up the first set of the evening exchanging kills, as 10 out of the first 12 points ended in a kill. However, Tampa was able to gain some separation from Saint Leo in the form of a lead as the set progressed. But when the lead grew to 13-8, Lions Coach, Natalia Koryzna, called her team's first timeout of the day. Shortly after the timeout, Emily Noe assisted a kill from Hayley Dillon, then immediately served the Lions an ace, putting the set at 19-10 as the home then responded with another timeout. The first set was closed out with back-to-back kills from Kalli Cors, followed by an ace from Zoey Seput, and finally, a kill from Jenna Davis, which marked a total of 17 kills for the Spartans.  | Score: 25-16 Tampa

Second Set: The second set began as the first did, with the two teams going back and forth until the Spartans gained a small lead. In an attempt to stop the lead from growing, as it did in the first set, Saint Leo called a timeout as they fell down 13-9. The Spartans went on a quick 4-0 run towards the end of the set, so the Lions called their second timeout of the set as they were down 20-13. Unfortunately for Saint Leo, the break only paused the Tampa run for one point and eventually wound up being a 9-1 run in total which ended things; Similar to the first set, Davis was the last Spartan to score, although the Lions ended this set with an attack error.  | Score: 25-14 Tampa

Third Set: Unlike the first two sets, where the Spartans and Lions were tied a total of 3 times each, the third set saw the two teams with even scores 9 times, starting right from the beginning. Yet Tampa began to build a lead in the middle of the set, even going on an 8-0 run. When their first timeout didn't slow the Tampa run, Saint Leo called another one just after stopping Tampa's run, which helped them go on a 6-2 run of their own, making the score 23-20. However, the Spartans closed out the set and match off of a Lion error, just after another kill from Dillon.   | Score: 25-20 Tampa

INSIDE THE STATS:

• Dufresne recorded a hitting percentage of .619
• Noe (17) and Seput (12) tallied double-digit assists
• Tampa held Saint Leo to a hitting percentage of .147