By: William Burns, Sports Editor
The Saint Leo Lions Volleyball team kicked off their home season with a game against Florida Southern on Friday Sept. 20th. Athletics, Campus Activities Board, and the Student Government Union Banded together to throw a Block Party for the students of Saint Leo University. The Block Party began at 4:30 PM and lasted the duration of the game, which started at 7:00 PM. SGU hosted a dunk tank which featured members of the student Government, Athletics workers, and Coaches. They also provided Chik-Fil-A for guests at halftime of the game as well. The Campus Activities Board brought some novelty booths and had over 200 students visit them. CAB setup and ran a customizable street sign booth, and photo booth, and a digital artwork booth which allowed students to create their names out of architecture. Athletics provided 100 t-shirts to the first guests that showed up and attended the game as well to entice people to come and cheer for the lions.
Members of the Women’s Lacrosse team came out to support the Volleyball team at the Block Party!
The Lions started their home opener at 7:00 PM against the Moccasins and started with the throttle wide open and never let off. The Lions came into the game with a record of 6-2 and had no intention of getting another loss. The Mocs came in with a record of 2-6 which was quickly turned into 2-6.
Members of CAB and SGU headed to the Bowman Center early to help setup for the block party.
The game was attended by nearly 800 people and the lions gave them a show. The first set was taken easily by the Lions at a score of 25-18. The second set was very similar to the first and ended with a score of 25-17 in favor of the Lions. Taking a two sets to none lead into the break, the Lions didn’t let off the gas at all. The Lions polished off the Mocs in the third set by a score of 25-14. The Lions’ fans got their times worth with a lot of action and didn’t use up their whole night as the game time was only an hour and 17 minutes.
Notable performances by the Lions included Ashley Quero, with 11 kills, Payton Bellano, with 13 digs, Anilise Fitzi, with 4 blocks, and Anna Garret, with 38 assists. The Lions improved to 7-2 with the win and got an early night as they prepared to travel to Tampa to take on the defending champion Tampa Spartans.
On Saturday, Sept. 21st, your Saint Leo Lions handed the 13th ranked Spartans their first Sunshine State Conference loss of the year. Tampa cruised through the first set easily by a score of 25-16. Timely streaks by the Spartans helped build and maintain a lead over the Lions to secure the win in the first set.
Victoria Omoregie Goes up for the kill against Florida Southern.
In the second set, it looked like Leo would fold again as the score was soon 21-13 in favor of Tampa. After a string of errors committed by Tampa, Saint Leo clawed their way back and took a seemingly sure win away from the Spartans and evened the score to one set each.
The Lions gained confidence and took control of the third set by way of a 13-0 run and took the lead by a score of 15-6. The Spartans tried to make a comeback similar to the Lions but fell short and dropped the set to the Lions 20-25.
With a two sets to one lead over the Spartans, The Lions buckled down against a tough performance from Tampa. Michelle Cuervo leads the Lions with five kills in the set. This helped the Lions out-kill the Spartans 17-11 and win the set 25-22, and the match, three sets to one.
Notable performances for the Lions included Anilise Fitzi, with 15 kills, Payton Bellano, with 13 digs, Victoria Omoragie and Annabella Arcari both with four blocks, and Anna Garret with 39 assists.
After notching this win against Tampa, the Lions improved to 8-2 on the year and 2-0 in the Sunshine State Conference. The Lions play at home next on October 1st against Eckard. Come out and Support your Lions!
Anilise Fitzi unloads on a kill to help get the win against Tampa.
