Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern returned to Sunshine State Conference play here Friday evening by dropping a hard-fought three-set match to No. 2 ranked Tampa (11-25, 25-27, 27-29) in front of a season-high crowd of 577 fans at Jenkins Field House.
Prior to the beginning of Friday's match, Florida Southern honored longtime FSC physical education instructor Kathy Benn for her 47 years of service to the school. Benn, who has announced that she will be retiring at the end of the 2013-14 school year, helped pave the way for women's athletics at FSC as she served as the school's first ever coach in volleyball, basketball and the women's tennis club team.
With the setback, the Mocs fall to 16-7 overall and 5-2 in the SSC and snapped its six match home win streak in SSC play that dated to last season, while Tampa improved to 20-1 and 8-0 in league play and extends its overall win streak to 13 straight and its conference winning streak to 28 consecutive matches. The Spartans haven't lost a conference match since falling in five sets at Eckerd on Oct. 28, 2011.
In Friday's match, which featured 29 ties and 10 lead changes, the Mocs defense kept them in the match the majority of the night as they recorded 62 digs, including a match-high tying 17 from junior libero Catherine Brusie (North Branch, Mich.) and had four blocks. FSC, who has now lost two straight matches, entered the match third in Division II in digs per set with an average of 19.86 per set.
While its defense played well, the Mocs offense struggled at times against the No. 2 ranked Spartans as FSC finished with just 32 kills and hit .131 for the match, including hitting a negative .143 in the opening set that saw UT post a 25-11 win. UT hit .252 on the night as they had 50 kills.
Junior outside hitter Kate Stromberg (Lexington, Ky.) led the way for the Mocs offensively as she had nine kills, 10 digs and two blocks, while freshman outside hitter Brindl Langley (Camas, Wash.) added seven kills and 11 digs and sophomore middle blocker Kayshia Brady (Welaka, Fla.) posted six kills, four digs and two blocks in the loss.
Sophomore setter Kendall Marotti (LaBelle, Fla.) finished with a team-best .400 hitting percentage as she had two kills and no errors on five attack attempts, while adding 27 assists and 10 digs for her team-leading 13th double-double of the year.
UT opened the first set by scoring the first five points and after FSC pulled within 13-7, the Spartans closed out the set on a 12-4 run to post the 25-11 win and take a 1-0 lead in the match.
In the second set, which had 11 ties and two lead changes, the Spartans held an early 3-1 lead, before the Mocs used a 9-4 run to take a 10-7 lead. The lead would grow to 14-11 following a Brusie service ace, before UT answered with a 7-4 run to tie the set at 18-all. After a kill and an ace by Stromberg gave the Mocs a 20-18 lead, the Spartans used a 5-1 run to take a 23-21 lead. The Mocs, though, would score two straight points to tie things up at 23-all. From that point, the team's would trade points, until the Spartans used a kill from Berkley Whaley and an assisted block by Marissa Lisenbee and Jessica Wagner to turn a 25-all tie into a 27-25 win and take a 2-0 lead in the match. In the set, the Mocs outhit the Spartans, .205 to .200.
The third set would have even more excitement as the team's combined for 18 ties and eight lead changes. In the set, UT jumped out to a 6-3 lead, before the Mocs answered with a 10-4 run highlighted by two Stromberg aces and two kills from Brady to take a 13-10 lead. The Spartans, though, reeled off four straight points to take a 14-13 lead. After Brady retied the set at 14, UT would score the next two points to take a 16-14 lead. The lead would evaporate as the Mocs responded with a 5-2 scoring run capped by back-to-back kills from Marotti and senior middle blocker Dominique Hale (Kingman, Ariz.) to take a 19-18 lead. From the point, the team's would take turns holding the lead until the Spartans used back-to-back kills Holly Reschke and Whaley to turn a 27-all tie into a 29-27 win. In the third set, UT hit .286 and had 29 digs, while FSC hit .220 and had 28 digs and two blocks.
UT was paced by a 17 kill and 17 dig night from Whaley, who was named this week's AVCA Division II National Player of the Week. In addition to Whaley, who hit .293, Reschke added 13 kills and hit .263 for the Spartans.
The Spartans defense, which recorded 65 digs and eight total team blocks, was paced by six blocks from Jessica Wagner, while Jen Scholz added 14 digs and Kahley Patrick recorded a double-double of 38 assists and 11 digs.
Both teams finished the night with five aces as Whaley had four of UT's five, while Stromberg had three of FSC's five aces.
The Mocs will look to get back into the win column tomorrow afternoon as they host Rollins (17-5, 4-3 SSC) in a 4 p.m. SSC match at Jenkins Field House. Rollins was idle on Friday as the Tars haven't played since falling in four sets at home to Tampa on Wednesday.
