LAKELAND, Fla. – Southeastern University finished the regular season facing the first place team in the Sun, but No.10 St. Thomas University and feel to the Bobcats, 3-1, at the Furnace.
St. Thomas took control early in the first set en route to a 25-16 opening win. SEU held small leads midway through set number two, but St. Thomas scored three-straight when it was tied at 17-17 and eventually put the final two tallies up for a 25-21 score. Trailing 23-21 late in the third set, the Fire rattled off four points in a row capped by a Yarelis Lopez kill and extended the match, 25-23. The Bobcats, though, sat with a 14-11 lead in the fourth set, put up the next five scores and ended the contest from there, 25-16.
In taking the third set from the undefeated Bobcats, the Fire did what no team had done in eight weeks; win a set versus St. Thomas. The Bobcats had not lost a set in any match since they dropped the fourth set in a 3-2 win at Keiser on September 11th.
Kennedy Jones led the home front line with 11 kills and 10 digs for a double-double. Cambry Pope added eight kills, 10 digs and six blocks, while Lopez chipped in six kills and nine digs. Chapel Cunningham contributed seven kills, two digs and a block along with Sylvia Liszewski having three kills, four blocks and four digs.
Camdyn Gebhards had a stout block and was in on 11 combo blocks, with Marysa Connors digging 18 attacks. Alexandra Postlethwaite set up 19 kills and had 10 digs, while Haven Speer added 12 assists and four digs.
With the loss, SEU falls to 18-5 overall and 12-3 in the Sun Conference. They will be the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Sun Conference Tournament and get a bye into the semi-finals, which will be played next Friday at No. 1 seed St. Thomas. The Fire will play at 6 p.m. against the winner of the Keiser/Ave Maria match being played on Tuesday night.
