MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (November 12, 2022) – St. Thomas University (STU) Volleyball (19-5, 12-2 SUN) breaks through to win the Sun Conference Tournament Championship, the first of the Whitney Battoe Era. St. Thomas sweeps both the regular season and tournament crowns. The Bobcats swept Keiser University (32-8, 10-4 SUN) in straight sets to claim their crown in front of the home crowd in the Fernandez Family Center.  

How They Got Here 

After another incredible regular season, the Bobcats claimed their second straight regular season crown with a 12-2 record. With the crown title, STU clinched the no.1 seed and hosting rights to the tournament. 

As the one seed, STU received a bye through the quarterfinals and awaited their opponent in the semifinals. Southeastern defeated Florida Memorial in three sets to punch their ticket to Miami Gardens. The Fire were one of the two teams to top the Bobcats in the regular season. SEU took a quick two-set lead before the Bobcats flipped the script and got the reverse sweep taking the final three sets to work their way back to the championship game. 

How It Happened 

St. Thomas earned he first point of the game just how they finished yesterday, off an Amanda Allende kill. The tone was set from there on out as it was all STU. The Bobcats dominated set one with a .326 hit percentage and just three errors. Set two continued with a .368 hitting percentage and three blocks. It just got better from there as St. Thomas went on to hit an impressive .444 in the final set and just one attacking error. 

That was the best offense performance from the Bobcats on the season, getting a total of 52 kills in just three sets. Mariana Cova led the charge with 17 kills off the bench for a career-high hitting .593. Amanda Allende followed close behind with 13 kills for the seventeenth time this season. The defense tallied seven blocks, one as the final dagger on a tag team from Alexandra MacAskill and Tayla Barnes.  

Loreto Nunez Casal and Amanda Allende were named to the All-Tournament team joining Bianca Grassi who was named the Tournament MVP after back-to-back 20 digs performances including 22 against Keiser. 

Up Next
St. Thomas will now be awaiting their travel arrangements for the National Tournament First and Second Round. The first appearance in the new team format.  

-STU-