By Anthony Martinez, Sports Editor
By the end of the 2019-2020 collegiate season, all college sports were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With every sport that was occurring coming to a pause —and eventual cancelation— it even affected the March Madness tournament, which generates most of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s revenue.
There was hope that by the fall of 2020, sports would be able to take place in some capacity. Unfortunately, fall sports at Saint Leo were delayed until spring, and even then, most games never took place. The women’s volleyball team who had just competed in the quarterfinals of the NCAA National Championship in 2019 competed in just four games last season.
Thankfully, in fall 2021, sports are taking place at the correct time. Fans are allowed to attend the games to cheer on the Lions while the fall teams pick up where they left off in 2019.
As mentioned, the women’s volleyball team only played just four games a season ago, having a record of 2-2. This year, the season kicked off on September 3 at the Ferris State Tournament, and they have already played four games this season. They’re currently off to a 1-3 start but it’s going to take time to get everything back to normal, which they haven’t seen much of in a long time.
Two of their three losses were also to ranked opponents and while they put up a good fight, they just fell a little short. In their last game, they already showed good improvement defeating McKendree three sets to zero. The next tournament will be the Valdosta State University Fall Tournament in Valdosta, Georgia, and the regular season wraps up November 20 against Palm Beach Atlantic.
Both men and women’s tennis are currently scheduled to start on September 24 at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Champions in Lakeland Florida.
Last season, the women’s tennis team performed well in the limited games they had, with a good record of 8-4, as well as winning an NCAA Regionals game against Nova Southeastern before losing to first seed, Barry. Women’s tennis will look to continue their success this season with head coach Chad Berryhill.
Continuing that success was the men’s tennis team, with a record of 9-3, they also went undefeated in the five games at home last spring. Similar to the women’s tennis team, they won an NCAA Regionals game before losing to number one seed, Barry. Also, men’s coach Chad Berryhill, will look to continue their success this year as well and potentially get revenge against Barry at some point this season.
Golf is up next. Starting with the men’s golf, it kicks off September 20 at the Griffin Invitational. Last season had varying success, with a dominant opening at the Saint Leo Invitational where they finished first out of nineteen teams, a great start that they followed with a second-place finish the next day. They finished the season in the NCAA South/Southeast Regionals where they finished eleventh to end their season.
Women’s golf starts on the same day but is a different invitational than the men’s, competing in the Dallas Baptist University classic. The regular season goes all the to the Lynn Invitational in April, before starting conference championship play, and potentially, regionals and nationals.
They had mixed results a season ago with some good placing, finishing fourth one day and second in another, but they finished in the bottom half of most of the games. For this season, head coach Lyndsey Bevill is looking to clean up and start to be more consistent.
Continuing the pair of men’s and women’s sports is cross country. Starting with the men’s cross-country team, this team only got to attend one meet a season ago where they performed in the Sunshine State Conference Cross Country Championship, where they finished in the top half, finishing fourth out of eight places.
Their last full season came in 2019 where they performed at a very high level. Finishing first on three different occasions which include the 2019 Sunshine State Conference Championship. They also performed admirably in the NCAA South Regional where they finished third. They also earned a spot in the NCAA National Champions, placing thirtieth, a great feat.
They look to continue their 2019 success on September 11 where their first meet takes place in Gainesville Florida at the Mountain Dew Invitational.
The women’s cross-country team carries the same schedule as the men’s teams. They’ll be starting the invitational in Gainesville, before the DII National Preview which is taking place at Saint Leo, at the Abbey Golf Course on October 2.
Like the men’s team, the women’s team only competed in the Sunshine State Conference Champion a year ago where they finished in the middle of the pack, tying for fifth place. Taking it further back to the full season in 2019, they were competing at a very high level. They finished first in the first invitational, the Florida Tech Invitational, of that season.
They have extremely similar results to the men’s team finishing second in the Sunshine State Conference Champion, third in the NCAA South Regional, and 30th in the NCAA National Championships. Both cross country teams had great performances in their last full season, and we’ll have to see if they can replicate that in 2021.
Lastly, we have both men and women’s soccer teams, who currently both have the same number of games scheduled, as well as the same record.
Men’s soccer had no recorded games last spring, leaving them with an enormous hurdle to climb. Two years ago, in 2019, the men’s soccer team had a record of 7-10. They were competing at a more balanced pace before losing five of their last six to end the season. While not ideal, it was still a large improvement from 2018, when they went 3-13. They seem to be heading in the right direction.
COVID-19 curbed their momentum to a halt last year. While they are at 0-1-1, they’ve performed well, even tying the University of South Florida in an exhibition game back August 19 with the score being 3-3. They also tied the eighteenth team in the nation, going into double overtime with them and only giving up one goal.
Their next two home games are September 18 and 21 against Embry-Riddle and Trinity College respectively. The regular season wraps up November 2 against Florida Southern College (FSC). We’ll see if they’re able to continue their improvement from year-to-year .
As mentioned, women’s soccer is off the same record as the men’s with a current 0-1-1 record. Even though it’s only the beginning, it feels like the team is going to be successful this season. They held Eckerd in the season opener to one goal before losing to Flagler, who is currently the number one ranked team in the nation. On top of that, even though it was an exhibition game, they dominated Polk State College 5-0.
Looking at last year, the women’s soccer team only played five games. They managed to grab a win despite the messy schedule in the spring. They’re on a much better track this season. In their last full season in 2019, they were more or less an average team going 7-9-1, winning the last two games of the season that year. In 2021, they have great potential to win a lot more games this regular season which concludes on November 2 against FSC.
That’s the current outlook of fall sports; hopefully the season will continue to take place without any cancelations, and sports fans will see what success Saint Leo has this fall.
