MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 27, 2023) – The Fernandez Family Center was rocking on Wednesday evening as fans and other Bobcat teams gathered to cheer the newly ranked no. 24 St. Thomas University (STU) Volleyball team (12-2, 4-0 SUN). STU welcomed Ave Maria University (7-8, 3-2 SUN) over from Alligator Alley for the Sun Conference matchup. St. Thomas took the match in three straight sets 25-11, 25-19, and 25-22.
 
This is the seventh straight win for the Bobcats and the fifth sweep in that span. The Bobcats are the only team undefeated in SUN play sitting in first at 4-0. They are a perfect 8-0 in three set matches this season.
 
The offense attacked early as Tayla Barnes had the first kill of the match. St. Thomas went to hold a 10-point lead at 14-4 taking advantage of Gyrene errors. The dynamic duo of Amanda Allende and Alexandra MacAskill continued the fight and accounted for eight of the 15 kills in the first set. The dominance was on full display as STU hit .464 in the opening set with just two errors.
 
Set two had the defense stepping up as two of the first four points for STU were off a block. Alexandra Bruno added into the attack scoring three straight points and holding serve to roll into a 14-8 lead. More errors would continue to aid the Bobcat lead as the team started establishing distance later in the set. MacAskill closed it out with a kill while holding serve as AMU ended the set on an error.
 
A service error would open the third set for Ave Maria. The Gyrenes would trade points with the Bobcats and the established a lead a 7-4 before Hope Leavy-Gaskins entered the chat and shut down the run. Leavy-Gaskins would then go on and get the next three STU kills as the team tried to flip the scoreboard. Enter, MacAskill in service and picking up back-to-back service aces to highlight a 4-0 run. Allende closed out the game with another statement kill pinned in the perfect spot.
 
Allende once again led the team and match in kills as the only player in double figures (13) while hitting .310. MacAskill was right behind with nine kills and a .368 attacking percentage. Sana Dennis and Alexandra Bruno teamed up for five kills each. Tayla Barnes led the defense with four blocks. Isadora Tavares stepped in as the setter in and executed 32 assist and two kills.
 
As a team the 42-kills were the most in aa three-set match this season. The defense kept the Gyrenes to single digit kills in both the first (4) and third set (7) while hitting .060 in the whole match.
 
St. Thomas will finish their non-conference schedule on the road against Florida College on Friday afternoon in Temple Terrace and the roll back into Sun Conference action against Warner on Saturday.