More colleges

ECKERD

Volleyball

Led by Danielle Higginbotham's 16 kills, ninth-ranked Florida Southern opened the Sunshine State Conference portion of its season with a 30-21, 30-23, 32-30 win over Eckerd Wednesday night at Jenkins Field House. Higginbotham hit .357 for the match and also had a team-high four blocks. Beverly Stasis posted the 70th double-double of her career with 10 kills and a team-high 13 digs. Jennifer King added nine kills and hit .600 for the match. Lydee Benoit led Eckerd with 12 kills, while Leigh Badoyen and Keisha Carter each had 10. Badoyen hit. 474. Carter hit .350 and had seven blocks. For the match, Florida Southern hit .308, while Eckerd hit .164. The Moccasins (12-3, 1-0 SSC) play at top-ranked Tampa Saturday at 4 p.m. Eckerd is 9-4, 0-2 in the SSC.

UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA

Volleyball

The University of Tampa volleyball team (12-1), proved why they were once again voted the number one team in the country with a historic 3-1 victory over the Rollins Tars. The scores were 30-25, 26-30, 30-21, 30-18.

With 10 digs on the night senior Margeaux Sinibaldi broke the Sunshine State Conference record for digs in a career with 1,817. The record was previously held by Sara Stewart (Florida Southern), who accumulated 1,814 digs of her own. Sinibaldi, who has started at Libero all four years at Tampa, has been an All American the last two seasons. Sinibaldi also holds all major defensive records for the Spartans, including, digs in a season with 606, as well as digs per game with an astounding 5.17 for her career.

After winning game one of the match, Tampa saw its play fall apart for a good period during game two. After the break the Spartans came out firing and were able to finish off the match in normal Spartan fashion.

Katelen Dixon led the Spartan attack with 15 kills. Three other Spartans also recorded double digit kills for the match. Erin Clark added 14 kills for Tampa, while Melissa Vanderhall and Alisha Green recorded 11 and 10 respectively.

Tampa's defense was once again solid throughout the match. Besides the double digit performance put in by the new record holder Sinibaldi, three other Spartans recorded more than 10 digs. Camila Saade led the Spartans with 13 digs. Her twin sister, Gabriela Saade, pitched in with 11 digs of her own. Dixon recorded her second double-double of the season with 11 digs along with 15 kills.

Gabriela Saade concluded her great night by adding 43 digs to help the Spartan offense click.

The Spartans will continue their conference play on Saturday when they face long-time rival Florida Southern.

SAINT LEO

Women's Soccer

The 24th ranked Saint Leo University women's soccer team (5-2, 1-1 SSC) came away with a 3-2 double-overtime victory over visiting Florida Southern College (6-2, 0-1 SSC) on Wednesday night at University Field.

Evelina Viiri (Jr., Heby, Sweden) scored the game-winning goal in the 105 th minute to hand the Lions their first Sunshine State Conference win of the season. FSC had battled back from a pair of one-goal deficits to force extra time, and in a windy and rainy conclusion Viiri sent a free kick that slipped through the grasp of Southern 'keeper Sarah Furr for her third goal of the season, and second game-winner.

The Lions opened the scoring in the 24 th minute when Bridgett Godwin (Jr., Ocean Springs, Miss.) played a perfect ball over the top for striker Chrissy Darwell (Fr., Cranston, R.I.). Darwell raced in one-on-one with the goalkeeper and slotted home for her team-leading fifth goal of the season and her third goal in the last two matches.

FSC equalized in the 40 th minute on a strike from midfielder Jackie Bachteler. The score remained level until late in the second half when a Saint Leo free kick from the right was deflected in by a Moccasin defender to give the Lions a 2-1 lead.

The lead was short-lived, though, as Florida Southern equalized just four minutes later with an Erin Hopkins strike. Bachteler picked up the assist on the second equalizer, which sent the match into extra time.

Neither side could find the winner in the opening 10-minute period. The Lions took advantage of a strong wind behind their back in the second overtime to score the game-winner, and pick up their third straight one-goal win over the Mocs.

Saint Leo will remain at home for its next match, as Rollins College will visit University Field for another Sunshine State Conference match. The Lions and Tars will meet on Saturday, September 22 at 7:00 p.m.

[Last modified September 20, 2007, 01:34:01]