Box Score SAINT LEO - Florida Southern returned to action here Saturday afternoon less than 24 hours after suffering its first loss of the season at Eckerd and fell in three hard fought sets to Saint Leo (18-25, 23-25, 25-27) in Sunshine State Conference action at the Bowman Center.
With the setback, the sixth-ranked Moccasins fell to 12-2 overall and 3-2 in the SSC, while Saint Leo improved to 8-5 overall and 3-2 in the league. FSC is now in a three way tie with Saint Leo and Barry for third in SSC standings.
Much like Friday's match at Eckerd that featured 22 ties and nine lead changes, Saturday's match was another close affair as it had 23 ties and 12 lead changes, including 11 ties and six lead changes in the third and final set.
One night after hitting .201 against the Tritons, the Mocs offense was held to a .167 attack percentage as they recorded 37 kills on 126 attack attempts. Only two Mocs hit over .250 in the match as junior middle blocker Rachel Mostert (Clearwater, Fla.) hit .300 and sophomore middle blocker Allie Geary (DeLand, Fla.) hit .263.
Sophomore outside hitter Anna Tovo (Aiken, S.C.) paced the Mocs with a team-high 10 kills and she added 10 digs her for team leading sixth double-double of the year. In addition to Tovo, senior right side hitter Kendall Marotti (LaBelle, Fla.) had seven kills and eight digs, while Geary had six kills.
The Mocs did manage to outblock the Lions, 8-2, but SLU outdug the Mocs, 69-55. SLU hit .254 in the match. FSC entered this weekend's action ranked No. 1 in Division II in opponents hitting percentage at .061. SLU was the third consecutive foe to hit over .200 against the Mocs.
FSC's defense was paced by 13 digs apiece from junior outside hitter Brindl Langley (Camas, Wash.) and freshman setter Bethany Besancenez (St. Louis, Mo.), while Tovo had 10. Besancenez also added 13 assists for her second career double-double.
Geary led the Mocccasins' block party with four, while Tovo and Marotti each had three blocks. Tovo tied a career high with two solo blocks as the Mocs had four solo blocks for the match.
FSC opened Saturday's match by scoring the first two points of the opening set on errors by Saint Leo and led 12-11 went the Lions used a 6-0 run to take a 17-12 lead following a kill by Anna Siruckova. FSC would score three of the next four points to pull within 18-15, before SLU closed out the set scoring seven of the final 10 points to earn a 25-18 win.
In the second set, the Mocs once again scored the first two points, this time on kills from Tovo and Brady, before SLU scored six of the next eight points to take a 6-4 lead. After a kill from Geary brought the Mocs within a point at 6-5, the Lions would extend its lead out to 13-9 thanks to a 7-4 scoring flurry. The Mocs would respond with a 7-1 run to take a 16-14 lead. After a Siruckova kill brought the Lions within a point at 16-15, the Mocs scored four of the next five points thanks to SLU errors to take a 20-16 lead. Following that run by the Mocs, SLU answered with a 5-1 run to tie the set at 21. But a kill from Tovo and an ball handling error by Ashlee Hodgskin gave the Mocs a 23-21 lead, before SLU closed the set by scoring the final four points to post a 25-23 set win and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Lions jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the third set, before the Mocs used 10-6 run to pull within 15-14. The run was capped by three straight SLU attack errors. After a kill from Siruckova stopped the Moccasin run, the Mocs scored three straight points to take a 17-16 lead, but SLU would answer by scoring three of the next five points to tie the set at 19. After the teams took turns trading the next 12 points to tie the set at 25, the Lions would score the final two points to seal its 27-25 set win and its three-set victory.
SLU, who recorded 50 kills in the win, was paced offensively by 15 kills, 11 digs and a .342 attack percentage from Siruckova. In addition to Siruckova, Hope Lemon added 12 kills and 13 digs and Britt Sederholm recorded 10 kills and 13 digs.
Five Lions recorded double-digit digs in the match as Hodgskin had 14 to go along with her 40 assists and Jamee Townsend finished with 10.
The Mocs will return to action this coming week with two matches at home in Jenkins Field House. The first match is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 6 as the Mocs face Florida Tech (7-5 overall, 2-3 SSC) at 7 p.m. and the second match is set for Thursday, Oct. 8 as the Mocs host No. 2 ranked Tampa (11-3 overall, 4-0 SSC) at 7 p.m.
