Oct 02, 2015

Volleyball picks up first home win

SAINT LEO, Fla. -- The Saint Leo women's volleyball team has been on the road the entire month of September, but the month of October looks bright as the Lions pick up their first home win of the season, in just their second outing at the Marion Bowman Activities Center. Saint Leo defeated Florida Tech 3-1,

The Basics
Final Score: Saint Leo defeated Florida Tech 3-1, (21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-14).
Location: Marion Bowman Activites Center | Saint Leo, Fla.
Records: Saint Leo 7-5, 2-2 SSC | FIT 7-4, 2-2

How It Happened

Saint Leo turned in its best attack percentage in four games, 56 kills on 124 attacks (.282). The Lions middle attack was crucial to Saint Leo's success at the net, as Jillian Stolzenburg and Katie Adamson combined for 20 kills, six blocks, five digs and a .378 attack percentage.
Stolzenbug collected 13 kills, a season best three digs and a season best four blocks, including a match high two solo blocks. Adamson powered down seven kills and a .429 attack percentage. Adamson held herself to just one attack error, and knocked down a match best five blocks, including one solo block.
Junior Hope Lemon led the Lions with 15 kills, and just five errors. Anna Siruckova tallied 14 kills, and a .345 attack percentage.
Jamee Townsend sprawled for a match high 15 digs, just under one-third of the teams 48 teams dig. The Lions defense was on point, as Saint Leo picked up 10 more digs than the Panthers.
Ashlee Hodgskin dished out 47 assists, her sixth 40+ assist performance of the year.
Set 1 | FIT controlled most of the first set, and three straight errors by the Lions allowed FIT to come from behind and take a 11-9 advantage. The pair would exchange points before another four-point run extended the Panthers lead to 17-13. The Lions remained in the big cat fight, and fended off three-straight set points, but couldn't complete the comeback and lost the first set 25-21.
Set 2 | The second set followed the back-and-forth pattern, but at 6-6, Britt Sederholm went back to serve and pushed the Lions ahead 9-3. Sederholm rattled off an ace to extend the Lions lead. Sederholm's ace was the turning point as the match, as Saint Leo appeared in cruise control from that point on and put the Panthers out of system for the next 10 points. The Lions extended their lead to 20-15, and capitalized on Panther errors to take the second set 25-19.
Set 3 | Saint Leo never trailed in the third set, and back-to-back aces by Hodgskin put the Lions up 15-10. The Lions remained on the attack, but Reggie Van Devender sealed the deal with another service ace at 22-15, to put the nail in the coffin. Kills by Adamson and Siruckova scored the Lions final points for a 25-19 win.
Set 4 | Early in the set, the Panthers battled with the Lions, but Saint Leo ran away with the match with five blocks in the fourth set. The Lions hit .320 and went 11-for-25 with only three attack errors.

Beyond the Box score

Hodgskin, who leads the SSC with 11.19 assists per set, bested her season average with 11.75 assists per set.
Saint Leo set the tempo of the match from the service line, collecting eight aces as a team, the most since the Lions 3-1 win over #21 Arkansas-Fort Smith Sept. 5th.
The Lions nine blocks matched their season high which they also reached in a sweep of Merrimack at the FSC/Terrace Hotel Classic (9/12).
In her 10th appearance of the season, Hannah Pietz tallied five digs, the third most of the team. Pietz hit the 50 dig mark in Friday's match, the redshirt sophomore's first career milestone.
Maddy Powell entered the match in the final points, and helped seal the Lions victory with three assists.
Van Devender played a crucial role as a substitute and served one of the team's eight aces.

For the Panthers

Senior Marilyn Dick led FIT with nine kills while classmate Kim Juriga and junior Jenna Schafferadded seven each.
Fellow senior Alea Hamm registered six kills and four blocks in the match and sophomore Samantha Reeves recorded five kills and two blocks.
Senior Ashtin Truesdale finished with 30 assists in addition to eight digs, two blocks and two kills.
Becca Bower had a team-high 11 digs against the Lions.

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