#1 Tampa Headed to the National Championship Game

Pensacola, Fla. - Saturday at 3:30 #1 Ohio State will battle it out against #2 Michigan on the gridiron; but before that can happen, another one-two match-up took place as the #1 University of (34-1) Tampa took on #2 Minnesota-Duluth (31-4) in the NCAA Division II National Semi-Final.

Tampa started out a little rusty, but they were determined to better their outcome from a year ago, when they lost in the national semi-final to Grand Valley State . Tampa took the first two games, before slipping in the third, than shut the door with a game four victory.

After giving up five quick points, Tampa needed a timeout to get things under control. That is exactly what happened. On two different occasions, the Spartans found themselves down by seven points, only to tie it all up at 17. After that, Tampa never trailed in the game. Katelen Dixon, Erin Clark and Danielle MacDonald each had five kills without an error, helping the team to a .356 attack percentage for the game. MacDonald scored the final two points for Tampa for the 30-27 win.

In the second game, the Spartans never trailed as they showed dominance in all facets of the game; their passing was crisp and their defense seemed to completely neutralize the powerful Bulldog attack. MacDonald led Tampa with six game two kills, and as a team the Spartans had five kills as they rolled to a 30-17 win.

Game three started the same way as the first as Duluth scored the first four points, but this time they never let up and Tampa was never able to get a lead and fell 30-21. Minnesota-Duluth's All American right side, Vicky Braegelmann, was hard to stop as she led the Bulldogs with seven kills and a three game total of 21.

The fourth game was a back and forth affair all the way to 21-21. After that, Dixon . took over. The junior from Clearwater , Fla. scored seven of the last eight Tampa points, including three solo blocks, to close out the game at 30-24.

Dixon finished the match with 18 kills and a team season high eight blocks. The team finished the match with 17 blocks, holding Duluth to a .183 attack percentage. MacDonald finished with 16 kills.

With 23 digs, Margeaux Sinibaldi eclipsed her own single season record of 557 and now has 578 on the year.