Saint Leo Stifles Rollins

WINTER PARK, Fla. (October 8, 2021) - Rollins dropped a Sunshine State Conference matchup with the Saint Leo Lions at home on Friday evening, falling 3-1 in four sets. The loss drops the Tars record on the year to 3-11 (0-7 SSC), while the Lions improve to 6-9 (2-5). 

• Despite not playing in ten days, the Tars did not look rusty in the first set as they stormed out to 6-0 lead that included two kills each form Riley Spurlin and Lana Gerard. Saint Leo made it interesting by scoring five of the next six points, but Rollins refused to relinquish the lead. In what was arguably their best played set of the year at home, the Tars tallied 16 points on kills, limited the Lions to a.091 attack percentage, and added two aces from Emma Begley and Andie Baldridge en route to a 25-21 win.
• The Lions roared back in the second set, scoring the first three points of the set, as well as seven of the first ten. Rollins fought to tie things up at eight with help from kills by Spurlin and Alexis Yeager. The two teams would tie three more times in the set, but Saint Leo slowly began to pull away. A four-point run by the Tars made it 19-18, but the Lions did not budge from their advantage. Three late attack errors from Rollins sealed their fate, as they dropped the second contest 25-22.
• The third set started off well for the Tars as they gained a 6-4 advantage highlighted by a pair of kills and an ace from Gerard. After a Rollins attack error gave the serve back to Saint Leo at 6-5, the entire match changed direction. Saint Leo scored the next six points in a row, and ten of the next twelve to gain a sizeable advantage. The Lions' offense was particularly efficient, with 13 kills and only two errors for an attack percentage of .478. Rollins was unable to mount any sort of comeback, and dropped set three 25-16. 
• Once again, Rollins started strong in set four with a 2-0 lead. With a win within their grasp however, the Lions went to work, scoring six in a row to take a 6-2 lead. After the two teams swapped points to make it 9-7, another five-point run from Saint Leo put the set out of reach. The Tars, who were without seniors Rebecca Kuehn and Candace Doxey, seemed out of sync with new lineups that had not played with each other very much this season. Rollins put up a respectable 12 kills at a .194 percentage, but the Lions committed only one attack error in the final set, which the would end up taking by a score of 25-17.

Spurlin and Gerard each had 14 kills to lead the Rollins attack. Andie Baldridge had a nice all-around game, posting nine kills, an ace, two blocks, and 14 digs. Ashley Russell tallied a career-best 30 assists in the loss. Next up for the Tars is a home match on Saturday afternoon against the Eckerd Tritons. First serve is scheduled for 4:00 pm at the Alfond Sports Center.