LAKE WALES, Fla. - Warner University women's volleyball team opened their final Sun Conference weekend of the season with a 3-0 (18-25, 25-27, 20-25) defeat at the hands of St. Thomas University on Friday night. The Lady Royals got 31 kills from
Marisa Moralobo and
Adrienne Czaplewski but dropped their sixth conference match of the season (7-6). The Bobcats, who sit atop the league standings improved to 21-7 overall with the win and 12-1 in league play.
Prior to the start of the match, the Lady Royals honored three seniors:
Marisa Moralobo,
Tiffani Pate and
Taylor Semione.
The Bobcats came out hot in the first set and jumped out to a 10-2 lead over the Lady Royals. The Warner offense finally came to life late in the set but could not narrow the Bobcats' advantage eventually dropping the opener 25-18.
Marisa Moralobo and
Adrienne Czaplewski started their big night with six of Warner's seven kills in the set.
The Lady Royals scored the first two points of the second set and held their first lead of the match. The two sides exchanged the lead three times in the set and had seven tie scores. Trailing 24-21 late in the set, the Lady Royals rattled off three straight points to tie the game at 24-24. The Bobcats, however, ended the set with back to back points to go ahead 2-0. As a team the Lady Royals posted a .317 hitting percentage. Moralobo and Czaplewski had 17 kills combined in the second set for the Lady Royals.
In the third set, the Lady Royals held the lead early on but a 4-0 Bobcat run gave the visitors the lead for good 15-12. The Lady Royals trailed the rest of the way hitting .200 as a team.
Czaplewski ended the night with a game-high 18 kills with a .389 hitting percentage. Moralobo's night ended with 13 kills. Both players finished with seven digs as well.
Tiffani Pate had four kills and one block while fellow senior
Taylor Semione had one service ace in the three-set loss.
Nicole Wittmer got the start at setter for the second time this season and finished 35 assists.
Heather Lockwood led the defense with 11 digs on the night.
On Saturday, Nov. 8, the Lady Royals close out the regular season with a 12 p.m. match with Florida Memorial University. The game is also the final Sun Conference game for the Lady Royals.
