MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (August 17, 2023) – The 2023 season kicked off on Thursday evening from the Fernandez Family Center Gym as the St. Thomas University (STU) Volleyball team took the court. Year four of the Whitney Battoe era showed extreme promise as two freshmen took the court with aa veteran squad and went toe-to-toe with the eighth ranked Missouri Baptist University Spartans.
 
The season started with a five-set thriller against the Spartans who finished last season at the national tournament final site. MBU was able to outlasts the Bobcats in the final two sets to take it 3-2.
 
Set one went the distance needing to finish in deuce to determine a winner. Missouri Baptist would come back and take it 26-24. St. Thomas came out hot as the freshmen Alexandra Bruno showed out in her debut scoring the first point of the season. After a 5-2 run to open the match, MBU was able to close the gap and bring it within one. Continuing to rally back and forth, the Spartans closed out the sett with a three-point run.
 
In the second and third set, St. Thomas locked in and used the battle from set one to take back-to-back sets. STU once again jumped out early to a 5-3 lead off seniors Amanda Allende and Alexandra MacAskill. The hype grew off of junior Sana Dennis who collected back-to-back kills to make it 11-9. The Spartans did not back down, rallying back to tie it up at 15 all. In an exchange of back and forth to 20, a MacAskill kill and MBU error gave STU a two-point advantage. Dennis closed out the set with a statement kill down the center of the court to even the match up.
 
Dennis continued with the momentum in set three scoring the first point of the set and getting a block and another pair of kills as the Bobcats assembled for a 5-0 run at 9-7. A collective team effort took place as STU closed out the third set on a 5-1 tilt sealing it with a Bianca Grassi service ace.
 
Missouri Baptist came out and controlled set four and five that powered them to victory.
 
Top Bobcats Stats
Alexandra Bruno – 17 kills, service ace, nine digs
Sana Dennis – nine kills, eight blocks
Tayla Barnes – 12 kills
Amanda Allende – 11 kills, 20 digs
Payton Bertke – 49 assists, 15 digs, 2 blocks
 
Up Next
St. Thomas will head up to West Palm Beach and compete in the Viper Sports Academy Classic hosted by Keiser University. This will be a four match stint over two days to close out week one of play.