BY MINDY PIERCE &
JESSICA PALL
Lions’ Pride Sports Editors

Courtesy of Mike Carlson

Michelle Nogueras leaps to set the ball.

After the Lions had captured two wins in the first and second round playoffs of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament against the University of North Alabama and University of West Florida, Saint Leo had one more match against University of Tampa to go on to be in the elite eight up in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Sharing a conference title with the Spartans, the first in SSC Championship in SLU Volleyball history, the Lions with high hopes set out to win the South Region Championship.

For the Lions, the first match began with a 3 pt lead, 9-6, against the Spartans. Quickly after Tampa was trailing behind, they caught up to lead with an 8-3 run and saw the scoreboard to be 23-18. Tampa’s Kaleigh Cunningham finished off the match as the Spartans captured the first round to end at 25-23.

The second set quickly held a huge gap with Tampa leading the game by 23-15, but the Lions refused to give up and went on a 5-1 point lead, ending the second game at 25-20.

The third set was the last chance the Lions had to have a shot to win this fight against the Spartans. Unfortunately for the Lions, Tampa led the set from the very beginning, and they proved to win the third game by 25-19.

Junior Bruna Rocha led the way for kills finishing the night with a total of 12 while teammates Kaitlin Mckenna and Emily Calderon-Reyes both had 9 kills against the Tampa Spartans.

Senior Michelle Nogueras finished her last game of her collegiate career with 35 assists while fellow teammate Chelsea Armer finished her final senior game with three service aces.

With no hesitation, the Lions fought a hard battle in all three sets, but came up short on each one of them.

While this game was the end to the Lions’ season, the Lions had a fantastic season and the following Saint Leo players were named on the 2009 NCAA South Regional All-Tournament Team:
Emily Calderon-Reyes
Kaitlin McKenna
Michelle Nogueras
Bruna Rocha

Additionaly, four players were also nominated to the Daktronics All-South Region Volleyball Team.
First Team
Kaitlin McKenna
Second Team
Michelle Nogueras
Bruna Rocha
Danielle Bletso

Further, individual honors have included an AVCA National Player of the Week, CoSIDA All-Distrtict Team, Daktronics All-Region Team, a Conference Coach of the Year, five All-Conference Team honors and AVCA All-Region awards.

Overall, the Saint Leo Lions Volleyball team had an outstanding season, proving to be the best in their program history as the Lions, 30-4, shared the Sunshine State Conference Title with rival, the Tampa Spartans.