MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (November 3, 2021) – The receiving votes St. Thomas University (STU) Volleyball team (20-6, 11-2 SUN) clinches the number one seed and hosting rights for The Sun Conference Championship. The Bobcats had another thrilling five-set victory to sweep the season Battle of Miami Gardens series over Florida Memorial University (9-8, 8-5 SUN) in comeback fashion.
 
Florida Memorial took an early 2-0 match lead with a 25-15 and 32-30 set victories. St. Thomas worked their way back winning three straight sets, 25-20, 25-20, and 15-8. With the win Head Coach Whitney Battoe secures her first 20-win season. In the third set, four-year senior Arianna Bolinger recorded her 1,000^th career kill, joining Coach Battoe in this exclusive recognition. Freshmen libero, Bianca Grassi, is also looking solidify herself in the record book as she is two kills away from 500 in a single season and 37 away from being the all-time single season leader.
 
St. Thomas scored the first point in four of the five sets. After dropping set one, STU opened set two on a 9-2 run. Florida Memorial would end up working their way back in a back-and-forth battle that resulted in a 32-30 final.
 
In the last three sets, the Bobcat defense held the Lions to hitting .016 after they hit .533. St. Thomas turned it up a notch after being down 2-0 opening set three on a 7-0 run. They led the entire way to get the first set under their belt. With the set three win that as enough to take the tie breaker from Florida Memorial should St. Thomas have lost the match.
 
The last two sets continued to show the resilience in the team as they worked their way down 2-0 to comeback and tie it in the fifth. St. Thomas took the lead and didn't look back to close it out at home. No one other than Loreto Nunez-Casal closed out the match with the final statement kill.
 
Five Bobcats had double-digit kills with graduate student, Tyran Chenault leading the way with 13. Amanda Allende and Loreto Nunez-Casal had 12 kills each, Arianna Bolinger had 11-kills, and freshmen Sana Dennis rounded it out with 10. Kyleigh Beecham and Mia Thomas continue to run the floor as the setters as Beecham notched 35-assists and Thomas had 21. Beecham collected a double-double with 35-assists and 11-digs.
 
With the clinching win, St. Thomas will host the Sun Conference Championship Tournament as a final four site. The semifinals will be played on Friday, November 12 while the final will be held Saturday, November 13. STU also receives a first round bye and will head straight to the semifinals for the first time since 2017.
 
With a win on Saturday, November 6 against Southeastern, the Bobcats will clinch the regular season crown for the first time since 2017. The team can also clinch with an Ave Maria loss on Saturday. Come cheer on the final regular season home game and senior day as first serve is set for 2 p.m. from the Fernandez Family Center Gym.