BY JACOB STOUT
Lions’ Pride Staff Writer

Courtesy of Mike Carlson

Kaitlin McKenna

The Saint Leo University women’s volleyball team continued its dominance on the volleyball court at the Bowman Center in Saint Leo, Florida on Wednesday October 6th. The Lions won the final two sets, in thrilling fashion, to beat visiting Florida Southern College, three sets to two.

The 16th ranked Lions are coming off a huge upset, and first ever win, at then-4th ranked University of Tampa Spartans. The Lions sweep of the Spartans, 3-0, ended a 56 game winless streak against the University of Tampa. Junior Bruna Rocha led the Lions over the Spartans with 21 kills as Saint Leo led in every offensive category. The win catapulted the 23rd ranked Lions up to their current ranking of 16th.

The Lions did well to not under estimate the 23rd ranked Florida Southern Mocs. Saint Leo setter, Michelle Nogueras, set the tone early assisting Kaitlin McKenna, whose kill scored the first point of the night. Two blocking errors and a ball handling error by the Mocs gave the Lions a 9-4 lead in the first set. Nogueras spread the floor assisting Emily Calderon-Reyes, Kaitlin McKenna, and Leah Perry on kills to give the Lions a 13-8 lead. An ace by Calderon Reyes gave Saint Leo a six point lead and forced Florida Southern to take a timeout.

Out of the timeout, Saint Leo didn’t let up and ran off four of the next five points with help from two attack errors by the Mocs and another ace, this time by Chelsea Armer. Southern took another timeout with the score at 18-9 in favor of Saint Leo. A 4-0 run by the Mocs forced the home team to take a timeout. Saint Leo couldn’t stop Southern out of the timeout and the Mocs took the next four out of five points to cut the lead to three at 22-19. An attack error by Southern, as well as a block by McKenna and Perry, and a kill by Calderon-Reyes gave the Lions three of the next four points for the first set win.

The second set saw the Lions start strong again and a block by Perry, Rocha and Danielle Bletso gave the Lions a quick 4-2 lead. Nogueras continued to work the ball for her teammates as they showed they might start to pull away. With the score 15-9, Florida Southern began to slowly climb back into the game. With Elise Burke setting, kills by Kelly Sherman, Natalie Arvizu, and Anne Pietkeiwicz pulled the Mocs back within two points at 17-15.

Two errors by the Lions allowed Florida Southern back into the set and head coach Sam Cibrone called a timeout for Saint Leo to try to stop the momentum. It didn’t work, and he Mocs tied the score at 19. A kill by Rocha gave the Lions back the lead but Southern took the next three points causing Cibrone to call another timeout. An ace by the Mocs didn’t help the Lions and they found themselves in a 23-20 hole. A kill by McKenna tied the set again at 24. Two assists by Nogueras gave the Lions a 26-25 lead, resulting in the Mocs scoring the next three points and an attack error by Bletso gave Florida Southern the second set.

Florida Southern again failed to come out strong and Saint Leo took advantage. Errors by the Mocs gave the Lions a quick 4-1 lead which they would not surrender. With the score 14-9 in favor of the Lions, three assists by Nogueras set up three kills by the Lions to cap a five point run. Southern scored five of the next six points to cut the Lion’s lead to four, but Saint Leo proceeded to slam the door and played arguably its best volleyball of the night scoring seven straight points to win the set 25-14.

The Lions tried to keep the momentum going into the 5th and final set but the Mocs came out with an early 3-1 lead. Saint Leo found its groove, scoring the next four points, gaining the lead for good. The teams switched ends with Saint Leo leading Florida Southern 8-5. A small two point run by the Lions forced the Mocs to take a timeout but the Lions scored out of the timeout to take a 12-7 lead. Kills by Rocha and Bletso sealed the five-set victory for the Lions.

Rocha and Calderon-Reyes combined for an impressive 39 of the teams 66 kills while Nogueras finished the night with 57 assists. Armer led the defense with 24 digs while the Lions as a team finished with 12 blocks. Julia Borecka led the Mocs with 21 kills and Anna Niebuhr had 26 digs.

Rocha was recognized before the match as her recent impressive play earned her National Player of the Week honors for women’s volleyball.