MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Southeastern University rallied to take the opening set, but St. Thomas regrouped for the final three and the 3-1 victory in the Sun Conference Women's Volleyball Championship.
Trailing by nine out of the gate in the first set, the Fire turned the tide and tied the set at 20-20. Yarelis Lopez took SEU to set point on a kill, 24-22, before a St. Thomas error made it a 25-23 final.
The undefeated Bobcats regrouped and turned a five-point lead, 21-16, into a 25-21 set two win for an even match. The Fire kept both the third and fourth sets with tight scores of 14-13 and 17-16. St. Thomas, though, put together five and six-point spurts in those two sets and went on for the 25-16 and 25-17 tallies to take the title.
For the second year in a row, SEU (19-6) faced off with St. Thomas (30-0) in the title match. Like last fall, the Bobcats took away the 3-1 win. The Fire have now put together back-to-back 19-win campaigns and an overall two-year record of 41-11.
In the match, Chapel Cunningham paced the Fire front line attack. She downed 15 kills with four errors in 27 attacks at a .407 rate, with three blocks.
Cambry Pope contributed a double-double of 10 kills and 13 digs with three blocks and an ace. Kennedy Jones rounded out the double-digit kill hitters with 10 along with six digs and a block. Lopez chipped in 14 digs and seven kills, while Camryn Gebhards added four kills and two blocks.
Marysa Connors dug 17 attacks and had five assists. Alexandra Postlethwaite handed out 35 assists with 11 digs for her own double-double.
