WEEKEND PREVIEW: Spartans Return Home For Two Game Slate and Senior Night

#3 Tampa

• Although losing their first match of the season, the Tampa Spartans still sit atop the Sunshine State Conference with a record of 24-1, of which 15-1 come against Sunshine State Conference opponents. The Spartans are coming off of a week where they swept Saint Leo and Palm Beach Atlantic but lost a 5-set thriller against Nova Southeastern. Looking ahead to this upcoming week, the Spartans are at home where they host Rollins and Florida Tech, whom they beat by an average of 8.3 and 7 points per set, respectively, as they swept Rollins and only lost one set to Florida Tech. The Spartans recorded a .400 attack percentage in their match against St. Leo, which ranks 9th-highest across all SSC games this season; Mackenzie Dufresne led the Spartans offense with 14 kills and a hitting percentage of .619 of her own.

Rollins

• Coming off of two straight losses, the Tars have a 14-12 record overall, while going 6-9 against their Sunshine State Conference opponents. Juniors, Lana Gerard and Jadyn Troutman are currently no. 5 and 7 in the SSC as they have amassed 336 and 317 kills, respectively; Troutman is also ranked no. 8 in the conference with a hitting percentage of .292. However, they aren't the only highly ranked Tars on the SSC leaderboards as a junior, Natalie Horsley is second in assists with 976 which averages 10.27 assists per set. The Tars look to close out their regular season in the next 2 weeks with only five remaining games, three of which come against Tampa, Embry-Riddle, and Nova Southeastern who are all top 5 in the SSC standings. 

Florida Tech

• After losing four straight matches to Sunshine State Conference opponents, the Buccaneers ended the skid with a win this past weekend and making their overall record 9-17 with a 3-13 SSC record. With 1630 digs across 97 total sets, averaging 16.80 per set, the Panthers have recorded the most digs in the entire Sunshine State Conference. Graduate middle blocker, Chiara Patelli has a hitting percentage of .327 which ranks as the 4th best in the SSC. Traveling on the road this week, the Panthers face Florida Southern and Tampa before finishing their regular season out at home against Palm Beach Atlantic Nova Southeastern, next week.