SAINT LEO, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University volleyball team defeated the Saint Leo Lions in four sets on Friday night at Saint Leo's Marion Bowman Activities Center.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
FINAL: W, 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-22)
RECORDS: Nova Southeastern (4-11, 2-6 SSC), Saint Leo (7-8, 4-3 SSC)
LOCATION: Marion Bowman Activites Center | Saint Leo, Fla.
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HOW IT HAPPENED:
SET 1 | NSU scored the first two points of the match, but the Lions kept it close early on and never let the Sharks lead by more than two. With the Sharks up 6-4, the Lions began to pounce with a 6-0 run. The Sharks got within one, scoring the four of the next five, before Saint Leo responded with a 7-1 run to take a seven-point lead, their largest lead of the set. The two teams alternated the next 12 points, until the Lions had set point and the Sharks made a valiant effort but could only reach 20 points before Saint Leo took the opener.
 
SET 2 | The second set was tied early and often – ten times, in fact, by the time both teams reached the 11-point mark. The Lions scored three straight to lead 13-11, but the Sharks maintained the small deficit before tying it up once again at 16-all. From there, they also tied at 17, 18 and 19 points, but another 3-0 Saint Leo run gave them a 21-19 lead. The Sharks rebounded with four in a row to take their first two-point lead of the set, then Denvyr Tyler-Palmer finished the Lions off with a kill for a 25-23 victory to even the match at one set apiece. The largest lead of the entire set for either side was just two points.
 
SET 3 | The Sharks jumped out to early leads of 4-1 and 7-4, but the Lions quickly tied it up at 7-all and again at 9-9. That seemed to inspire something in the Sharks, who soon after went on a 7-1 run, for a seven-point lead of their own. Saint Leo responded with three to cut the lead down to four, but that would be as close as they would get, as the Sharks pushed it back out to seven and went on to take a 25-19 set win for a match lead of 2-1.
 
SET 4 | The fourth, and ultimately, final set was another close one. Trailing 3-2, the Sharks used a 6-2 run to take a three-point edge, but the Lions fought back to take a 11-10 lead before the two teams battled for ties at 11, 12, 13 and 14 apiece. They continued to trade blows, as the Lions led 16-14, before the Sharks answered back for a 17-16 lead, and the Lions with another lead of their own, this time at 18-17. The Sharks finally ran away with the set and the match, using a 7-1 run to give themselves match point, and Maddie Uilk scored the game's final kill to clinch it.
 
INSIDE THE STATS

• Denvyr Tyler-Palmer recorded her sixth double-double of the season, with 19 digs, matching her season high, and a game-high 15 kills.
• Maddie Uilk and Kim Blasko added 12 kills each. For Uilk, that represented a season-high, but marked a career-high for Blasko, far surpassing her previous best of 8, which she recorded twice, including the team's previous match against Tampa.
• Megan Burns led the match with 23 digs, while Caylee Cox and Samantha Blasko nearly shared the team lead in assists, with 23 and 22, respectively, a career-high for Cox, a junior college transfer.
• The Sharks had no service aces in the match for the first time all season but benefitted from 12 Lions service errors, the most by any Sharks opponent this season.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:

• The Sharks defeated the Lions for the first time since Nov. 14, 2015, ending Saint Leo's four-game win streak in the series history.
• This was their first victory in the Marion Bowman Activities Center since Nov. 8, 2008, a three-set sweep when Sharks Head Coach Jennifer King was an assistant coach on the opposite side of the court. The teams met nearly two weeks later in Tampa, Fla. for the semifinals of the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament, the first for both squads. Despite falling behind two sets to zero, the Sharks rallied back to win the match, their third against the Lions that season, before claiming the South Region Championship and advancing all the way to the Elite Eight in St. Paul, Minn.
• The victory also snapped a five-game road losing streak dating back to the end of last season. The team's last road win was Nov. 10, 2017 against Rollins in Winter Park, Fla.

UP NEXT:
The Sharks will continue their road swing tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 p.m., when they face off against the Florida Southern Moccasins from Lakeland, Fla. For complete coverage of the action, visit the schedule page on NSUSharks.com.
 
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