Women's Volleyball | 11/22/2003 10:15:00 PM
Box Score MIAMI SHORES, Fla.—The Tampa Spartans advanced to the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament with a straight game win over the Barry Buccaneers, 33-31, 30-27, 30-27 at the Health & Sports Center Saturday night.
The match was a tense, tight affair with neither team being able to dominate. With the Spartans leading 21-18 in game one, Barry's
Simone Ferrarezi went down after a play in the net. The Bucs tied the game at 22-22 behind the serving of
Sarah Alexander and
Samanta Tucillo and the teams traded points to 30-30. Barry pulled ahead on a kill by
Daniela Lanza, but Tampa's Ania Ruiz put away two of the last three points to lift the Spartans to the game one win.
"We really needed to get game one," Barry head coach Dave Nichols said. "We had a couple of opportunities where I thought we had a chance to put it away, but give Tampa credit. They scrapped and scraped and made the plays when they needed to."
Ferrarezi tried to come back in game two, but left after only eight points when her leg gave way again. Two long serving runs by Stephanie Rivera and Ruiz proved to be the difference in the match.
"We really came out focused tonight," Spartan head coach Chris Catanach said. "You hope for that, as coaches we pray that they will maintain that focus and they did. We're really proud of them for that."
Game three was another close one. The game was tied 19-19 when the Spartans scored five of the next six points as Barry made four attacking errors.
"Too many unforced errors," Nichols said after the match. "As the game went on, we had more of them than Tampa."
Barry had 24 attacking errors, leading to a .165 percentage, the lowest for the Bucs since hitting .194 in a loss to UC San Diego back in September. Fernando Brino again led the Bucs with 13 kills, while Ruiz paced Tampa with 15.
Both players made the All-Tournament team along with Jackie Struck of North Florida, Florida Southern's Courtney Veasey and Tampa's Gretchen Naruta and Stephanie Rivera.
The Spartans advance to the National Championship Tournament for the second straight year where they will face the champion of the Pacific Region in the quarterfinals.
Short Box Score (Match)
2003 Barry University Buccaneers
#5 Tampa vs #6 Barry (11/21/2003 at Miami Shores, Fla.)
Tampa def. Barry 33-31,30-27,30-27
Tampa (31-3) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Ania Ruiz 15-1-2; Stephanie Rivera 13-3-3; Ericka Womack 8-0-7; Amber Langston 6-0-2; Kayla Mora 6-0-0; Molly Greenwood 4-0-0; Gretchen Naruta 1-0-2; Yoshiko Ozawa 0-2-0; Totals 53-6-9.0. (Assists) - Gretchen Naruta 46. (Dig leaders) - Stephanie Rivera 13; Kayla Mora 10; Gretchen Naruta 8
Barry (24-4) (Kills-aces-blocks) -
Fernanda Brino 13-2-2;
Fernanda Ferreira 10-0-3;
Samanta Tucillo 9-1-2;
Kelly Dantas 4-0-0;
Sarah Alexander 4-2-0;
Daniela Lanza 2-0-1;
Simone Ferrarezi 2-1-0;
Nicole Castera 1-0-1; Totals 45-6-5.0. (Assists) -
Daniela Lanza 38. (Dig leaders) -
Daniela Lanza 11;
Simone Ferrarezi 8;
Fernanda Brino 8
Site: Miami Shores, Fla. (Health & Sports Center)
Date: 11/21/2003 Attend: 1013 Time: 1:44
Referees: Donna Carter, James Phillips, Tracy Travis
University of Tampa wins the NCAA South Region Championship and advances to the NCAA Elite to a site TBA.
