No. 8 Tampa Anchors Palm Beach Atlantic

West Palm Beach, FL. – The Spartans hand Palm Beach Atlantic their 11th straight Sunshine State Conference loss.

Final Score: Tampa 3 (1: 25-17, 2: 25-16, 3: 25-17), Palm Beach Atlantic 0

Records: Tampa (14-2, 6-2 SSC), Palm Beach Atlantic (6-15, 0-11 SSC)

Location: Rubin Arena | West Palm Beach, FL.

HOW IT HAPPENED: 

First Set: The Spartans came out swinging in their first set against the Sailfish, capturing 9 of the first 12 points with 4 separate Spartans notching a kill. Palm Beach Atlantic was swift to call their first timeout, in an early hole. The Sailfish gathered themselves defensively, even going on their own 4-0 run, which prompted a Tampa timeout as their lead was cut to 15-12. Zoey Seput recorded 13 assists in the first set while Connor Rahn had 4 kills, and the two connected on the final play to close out the first set for the Spartans.    | Score: 25-17 Tampa

Second Set: Almost mirroring the first, the second set began with Tampa jumping out to an early lead aided by a 5-0 scoring run to give the visitors the 7-1 lead. Back-to-back, Seput-assisted kills from Nathaly Perez and Jenna Davis completed a 4-0 run for Tampa that was interrupted by the second timeout from the Sailfish with the set scored at 17-10. Unfortunately for the home team, Tampa's offensive dominance (19 kills and a hitting percentage of .471 in the set) continued after the stoppage, going on another 4-0 run of consecutive sets of kills from Rahn and Perez. UTampa would end the set just 6 plays later with more kills, now coming from Mak Carter and Kalli Cors.  | Score 25-16 Tampa

Third Set: On just the 9th play of the third and final set, JJ Ramirez set up Tess Schrenger for a beautiful kill to cement an early lead of 7-2, in favor of Tampa, as PBA signaled their first timeout. The Sailfish had almost caught the Spartans at 13-12 but then a 6-0 run from Tampa nearly sealed the match. Although going on a 4-0 run that made Head Coach Chris Catanach call a late timeout, Palm Beach could not stop the offensive onslaught from Tampa, as the hosts' only lead of the day came at 1-0 in the third set. The match was wrapped up following successive well-placed kills from Jenna Vaske.| Score: 25-17 Tampa

INSIDE THE STATS:

• With 36 assists, Seput had more than triple the next closest player in the match.
• The Spartans' defense held the Sailfish to a .083 hitting percentage.
• Ramirez (13), Seput (13), and Perez (10) led the match as the only players with double-digit digs.