Seniors Shine In Regular Season Finale

TAMPA, Fla. - The Sunshine State Conference champion University of Tampa volleyball team celebrated senior night with victory over the Barry University Buccaneers in straight sets on Saturday afternoon in the Bob Martinez Center. The No. 2 Spartans end their regular season with a 26-3 record and SSC best 15-1 while Barry falls to 16-6, 11-5 in conference play.

Seniors Sam Macks, Kady Bruce, Kaleigh Cunningham, Meghan Sherman, and Melissa Vanderhall were honored during their game for their outstanding careers at UT. All four played an integral part in the victory as Tampa won 25-19, 25-14, 25-18.

Tampa attacked at a season-high .488 percentage while limiting Barry to a .143 during the match. Sherman tallied her 13th double-double of the season while picking up 37 assists in the contest to go with 11 digs. Senior outside hitter Vanderhall slammed home 12 kills at a .478 rate as Cunningham ended the match with team-best 13 kills, attacking at a .500 clip.

Middle hitter Danielle Selkridge continued to dominate, tallying six blocks and grounding 10 kills in 11 swings en route to a new school record for attack percentage in a three set match, posting a .909 clip.

In the first set, the Spartans gained a 9-2 lead off of the serve of Cunningham who tallied four kills on the set as Selkride limited the Barry attack with four blocks. Sherman dished out 13 assists in the frame, helping Tampa to a .484 hitting percentage.

Selkridge led the second set with five kills in five swings and added two blocks to pace the Spartans to a 25-14 win. Macks added two kills in two attempts while sophomore Jessica Yingling notched three kills of her own.
In the third set, Vanderhall and Cunningham grounded five and six kills respectively for a 25-18 conclusion to the regular season.

Libero Julie Howlett picked up eight digs in the match while Macks finished with six blocks and attacked at a .455 percent. UT collected 13.0 blocks in the contest, the third highest mark of the year.

Tampa now waits for the pairings of the 2010 NCAA Division II tournament which will be announced Sunday night at 10 p.m. on NCAA.com. Live stats for the South Region tournament will be available through www.tampaspartans.com.
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