Alyssa Tsang, Contributing Writer
The Saint Leo University volleyball team came back home from a short break this season with the South Region Crossover. Hosting a game against Tritons of Eckerd College on Nov. 2, they won three sets to none, 25-19, 25-20, 25-20, consecutively, leading them to three wins and three losses in the whole tournament.
The victory brings the Lions’ revenge from the loss against the Tritons from earlier in the season on Sept. 21, which was also three sets to none, with the roles just reversed. Their record now is 11-16 overall on the season and is now up to 5-11 in Sunshine State Conference play.
This season has had its share of tough moments for our volleyball players, as they lost three matches consecutively to Montevallo, Florida Southern, and Nova Southeastern respectively.
The games against Florida Southern was especially tough, scoring only 11 points in one of the sets, with 12 aces, and two players with two-digit kills from the opposite. They showed their weaknesses on receive and defense, which was also the major reason for losing the previous matches.
But in the recent game against Eckerd, they fixed the problem by giving steady passes and great defenses. Three of the Lions on the receiving line with two outside hitters were well-balanced and gave steady passes through the whole match.
But the performance of the senior libero, number four, Payton Bellano, gave great support to both receives and defenses with 19 digs in the whole game that lead to strong, diverse attacks of the Lions in the game against the Tritons.
In the second homecoming match against Florida Tech on Nov. 5, they lost the first set but then went on to win three sets in a row.
In the beginning of the first set, Florida Tech used their strong serve to break the Lion’s receives and lost 0-3, but they had recovered quickly by substitutions and by trying different formations. They constantly chased back to a tie, and with the strong blocks at the end of the set one, they finally got the set point first. They had shown their strong flexibility and team spirit and had built up the victory for the sets later.
The terrific performance from the two home matches, and a recent win against Rollins at home as well, has shown that the team has well-rounded and well-balanced players on the squad. Their future performance in the rest of the season will surely be remarkable.
