MELBOURNE, Fla. – Senior outside hitter Tawni Warren pounded out 10 kills while her Saint Leo University teammates hit .233 for the match as the Lions tamed the Florida Tech Panthers, 3-0, in a Sunshine State Conference volleyball match Friday night at Eastern Florida State College's Melbourne Campus Gym.
Set scores for the Lions were 25-17, 25-21, and 25-19.
Saint Leo improved its record to 16-8 overall with the victory, and 5-4 in the SSC. Florida Tech tumbled to 9-15, 1-9 SSC, with the loss.
Warren charted her 10 kills on 19 error-free swings for an impressive .526 hitting percentage. Senior pin hitter Alexa Griffith-Hardy tallied nine kills on 22 swings for a .318 clip, while junior middle Jillian Stolzenburg put down six kills on 14 attacks. Stolzenberg also charted three service aces and had a pair of block assists.
Junior Ashlee Hodgskin and senior Rachel Olliff set the offense and recorded 18 and 17 assists respectively. Senior libero Yaidimar Santiago turned up 21 digs for the Lions, while outside hitter Lauren Campbell sprawled for 14 digs.
Santiago also served up a pair of aces for the Lions.
Florida Tech was held to a .079 hitting percentage for the match, and handed away 21 points to Saint Leo on attack errors. Three different players finished with seven kills each for the Panthers, with Kim Juriga pacing Tech with seven terminations, one ace, and two block assists for a team-high 9.0 points. Juriga also helped out defensively with 12 digs for the Panthers, while Cheyanne Kauffman dug up 14 balls during the match.
In the first set, Saint Leo broke a 16-16 tie by rattling off seven straight points following a side out kill by Griffith-Hardy. Five of the points during the Lions' run came off Florida Tech attack errors, with Stolzenburg adding a kill and Santiago serving up one of her two aces in the match.
A double block by Griffith-Hardy and Stolzenburg at the end of the run got the Lions to set point, but a kill by Florida Tech's Milli Tapuskovic momentarily broke the Saint Leo momentum. Griffith-Hardy sealed the set one win on Florida Tech's ensuing serve, getting a kill off a set by Olliff.
Saint Leo held a three or four point lead throughout much of set two, with Florida Tech briefly cutting the margin to two at 22-20 on a double block by Carissa Thiel and Marilyn Dick. Britt Sederholm answered with a kill for the Lions to extend the margin to 23-20, and a Campbell termination got the Lions to set point. Two points later, Sederholm put down a kill off a Hodgkin set to give Saint Leo a 2-0 lead in the match.
Florida Tech rallied somewhat in the third set, and held a lead as late as 17-14 following a Kauffman ace.
Saint Leo began chipping away at the Florida Tech lead with a pair of Griffith-Hardy kills sandwiched around a Panther attack error, and the set was tied up at 17-17. Outside hitter Hope Lemon put the Lions in front 18-17 with her only kill of the night, and back-to-back side out points advanced the score to 19-18 in the Lions' favor.
The Lions held the lead the rest of the way, charting five straight points to close out the set. A Stolzenburg ace on match point completed the 3-0 victory.
Saint Leo volleyball completes the weekend road trip on Saturday, Oct. 25, when it travels to Boca Raton, Fla., to face Lynn University. Start time for the match will be 3:00 p.m. at the de Hoernle Sports & Cultural Center.
For more information on the Saint Leo volleyball program, visit SaintLeoLions.com. Also, be sure to 'Like' the Lions on Facebook and 'Follow' Saint Leo Athletics on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
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