No. 9 Tampa Moves Past Barry 3-0

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. - The ninth-ranked University of Tampa volleyball team (16-2, 7-1) pushed past the Barry Buccaneers (10-6, 2-5) by a 3-0 score tonight at the Health and Sports Center. The Spartans won by scores of 25-21, 25-18, and 25-15.

The Spartans came out strong opening the match with a 5-0 run forcing the Buccaneers to take a timeout. The moved worked as Barry came back with four points of its own and eventually took the lead at 8-7. The teams battled back and forth until Tampa used a 7-0 run to regain the lead at 18-12. Not to be outdone, the Bucs responded with an 8-1 stretch to lead the Spartans at 20-19. A pair of Melissa Vanderhall kills gave Tampa back the lead and it would go on to take the first set 25-21.

The second set saw Tampa slowly build a six point lead at 15-9 and the teams would exchange points until UT was finally able to take the game 25-18. Kaleigh Cunningham put down five kills in the set with only one error for a .400 hitting percentage. Then in the third frame, UT raced out to another 5-0 lead and led by as much as 10 to seal the match 25-15.

Vanderhall was the only player in the match to finish with double-figures in kills with 14 and also turned in her second double-double on the season adding 11 digs. Cunningham was one kill away from a double-dip of her own as she had nine kills with a team-high 12 digs, and Brianne Yeates followed with seven kills, matching a season-high, at a .368 rate. Junior setter Meghan Sherman dished out a match-high 33 assists, marking the eighth consecutive game with over 30 assists.

Molly Krull made her first collegiate start filling in for Jessica Yingling and notched a match-best three service aces. Playing libero tonight for the Spartans was Eva Dupay who tallied 11 digs along with a service ace. Each team turned in six blocks as Sam Macks put up three. Samara Ferreira had a hand in all of Barry's stuffs as she had a solo block as well.

The Spartans hit a modest .287 while holding the Buccaneers to just .120. Julia Ridley led BU with nine kills and Julia Teixiera had eight with a match-high 13 digs.

Tampa has a quick turnaround as they come back home to take on Bentley at 7:30. Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans). UT also offers eScores, which is a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events.