Bobcats Advance After 4 Setter With Win Over Warner
Mike Craig
BABSON PARK, Fla. – No. 2 seed St. Thomas (25-6) defeated no. 3 seed Warner (14-8) 3-1 in the semifinals of The Sun Conference Tournament Friday afternoon at the Sabbagh Athletic Center. The Bobcats took the match 25-21, 19-25, 29-27, and 25-20 to advance to the Sun Conference Championship
on Saturday at 2
p.m. St. Thomas will face off against no. 1 seed Webber for the conference crown.
Leading the way for STU was Whitney Battoe who recorded 18 kills with a .424 hitting percentage, eight digs, two service aces, and one block. Behind her was teammate Shanotta Bawek with 14 kills, 14 digs, and one block. Kadeeja Griffin reported a .444 hitting percentage with 10 kills, two digs, one block, and two block assists while Courtney White posted nine kills, hit .368, with one dig and one block assist. Aiding in offensive efforts was senior setter Dana Nowaczyk who recorded a match high 50 assists along with one service ace, five digs, and one block assist. Defensively, Kelli Kosydor led all Bobcats with 16 digs and had two assists.
In what seemingly was a relentless and noisy environment, St. Thomas played a well fought match that granted them a win to advance to the Conference Championship. To start set one, the Bobcats and Royals evenly exchanged leads throughout the set however, St. Thomas bested Warner by four after scoring three consecutive points which came from Battoe and Nowaczyk.
In the following set both teams were evenly matched until the Royals caught momentum after Adrienne Czaplewski who scored on a kill that tied the game. The kill sent Warner on four point run to stretch the lead 19-15. The Bobcats battled back but could not clinch the lead as the Royals outscored the Bobcats six to four and ended the match 25-19.
Heading into the third, the teams cumulatively exchanged leads 38 times over the course of the set and each sided out more than 70 percent. With the Royals up by one in the latter part of the set, Carly Durr, who was nicely assisted by Nowaczyk, hit a ball that tied the set and swung the momentum in favor of the Bobcats. St. Thomas scored two more consecutive points and went on to finish the set 29-27.
As a team St. Thomas averaged .448 hitting percentage which outdid Warner's .235 in set four. With an early 8-3 lead, St. Thomas continued to apply pressure and never looked back. The Bobcats lead remained unchanged for the duration of the set as they scored consecutively to stretch the lead to five. The set ended 25-20 with a kill by White who was set by Nowaczyk.
The Bobcats head back to the Sabbagh Athletic Center tomorrow afternoon for the Conference Championship game at 2 p.m.
-30-