LAKELAND, Fla. – Fifth-seeded Saint Leo defeated fourth-seeded North Alabama 3-1 (25-19, 25-20, 26-28, 25-20) in the first round of the NCAA Division II Tournament, South Region Quarterfinals, inside the George W. Jenkins Field House. The Lions move to 23-6 on the year and will take the court on Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
 
On the night, Victoria Omoregie paced the Lions' hot offense with 18 kills on a .485 hitting percentage. Omoregie recorded just two errors in 33 attempts, while adding four block assists on the night.
 
Britt Sederholm and Ashley Quero tied for second on the team with 12 kills where Quero edged out Sederholm in hitting percentage with a .387 clip and zero errors. 
 
Anna Garrett continued to pace the Lions upfront spreading the ball around for 48 assists where the Green and Gold put down 58 kills on the night on a .243 team clip. Saint Leo used a .268 hitting percentage to open play followed by a .421 second set. The Lions cooled off just a tad and finished with a .208 and .109 third and fourth, respectively. Garrett added eight digs, six kills, three blocks and three service aces to her stat line. 
 
Jenya Kruglova scooped up a career-high 35 digs on the night helping the Lions hold North Alabama (27-8) to a .174 hitting percentage.
 
On the season, Saint Leo evened the series at 1-1 after dropping the first match 3-2 in the South Region Crossover on Oct. 13. Head-to-head, Saint Leo also evened things up at 7-7 after the two teams entered 2017 tied at 6-6. In the NCAA Tournament matchup, Saint Leo is now 2-0 over North Alabama having met in 2009 where the Green and Gold defeated North Alabama 3-0. 
 
"We knew they were an aggressive team and would fight to the end," Director of Volleyball Sam Cibrone stated. "As a staff, we told the girls to not worry about the points and have fun, and they did just that."
 
"When we played North Alabama earlier, we were up 2-0 and lost in five, so we already knew that even if they were down, they would continue to fight, and I told the team to stay in it and continue to grind," Cibrone added. "We are aggressive  on offense as well, so for our team to pick up 13 blocks was a big adjustment from the last time we faced North Alabama."
 
SAINT LEO 25-19 | Saint Leo opened the first set on fire hitting a .444 clip as team running out to a 9-1 lead, forcing North Alabama to call both timeouts early. North Alabama roared back and used a 12-5 run to close to a 14-13 first set. UNA would hang tight to a 19-18 score before the Green and Gold closed out the first with a 6-1 rally to claim the first by six points. Anna Garrett tallied three kills in the first set, with the first point of the match and the two of the final three points in the set. Garrett would tie with Ashley Quero with kills at three, where Britt Sederholm and Victoria Omoregie landed four kills in the set.

SAINT LEO 25-20 | Saint Leo came out in the second and continued to pressure the North Alabama attack as the Green and Gold scored its first two points on blocks by Dallas Jasper, Victoria Omoregie and Ashley Quero. Quero would land a kill to make it 3-0 Saint Leo before North Alabama rallied to tie things at 6-6. Saint Leo would run out on a 7-2 spurt to take a 13-8 lead into a UNA timeout. North Alabama would use its second timeout trailing Saint Leo 20-14, on back-to-back kills by Ashley Quero. North Alabama would outscore Saint Leo over the remaining points, but the deficit was too big to overcome, dropping the set by five.  Quero paced the Lions with five kills in the second set ahead of Britt Sederholm and Victoria Omoregie's four apiece.

NORTH ALABAMA 28-26 | North Alabama gained its first lead of the match at 3-2 and played most of the third set in front. Saint Leo held a 6-4 lead and fought to tie the match five times, 14-14-, 15-15-, 19-19, 20-20, 21-21, before Britt Sederholm and Dallas Jasper teamed up and blocked the UNA attack to push the Green and Gold back in front, 22-21, resulting in a North Alabama timeout. UNA would battle back to tie things at 24, 25, and 26, before regaining a 27-26 lead, and go on for the 28-26 set win.
 
SAINT LEO 25-20 | Saint Leo would come out and control the fourth set early taking a 1-0 lead and gaining the advantage on the side out, prior to a 9-9 tie. Saint Leo would gain two kills from Victoria Omoregie and an ace from Avery Bradshaw to move out to a 12-9 lead, forcing a UNA timeout. North Alabama would charge back to tie things at 13-13 before playing from in front to 17-16. A service error by North Alabama would tie things, 17-17, before Saint Leo used an Anna Garrett ace and UNA attack error to gain a 19-17 lead heading into a North Alabama timeout. Saint Leo would come out of the timeout and race out to take the set by five points, earning five of their final six with three kills – Anna Garrett, Britt Sederholm, Victoria Omoregie – an ace by Avery Bradshaw and a block from Dallas Jasper and Omoregie.
 
Saint Leo will return to the court tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in Lakeland to take on host and first-seeded Florida Southern inside the George W. Jenkins Field House in the fifth game of the NCAA Division II South Regional, hosted by Florida Southern College.
 
For the latest news, updates, and information on the Saint Leo volleyball team visit SaintLeoLions.com.  Fans can also stay up-to-date on the latest Lions news by following Saint Leo Athletics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.