Tampa Wins Volleyball National Championship
Playing in the NCAA Division II championship match for the third time since 1999, the University of Tampa defeated North Alabama in four games (30-25, 27-30, 30-21, 30-17) Saturday night in Pensacola to win the program’s first NCAA Division II championship. The match was played as part of the NCAA Division II National Championships Festival.
The national title is the 64th national championship won by a Sunshine State Conference team since the conference was founded in 1975-76. SSC teams have won four NCAA championships in volleyball, including three in the last six seasons.
Five Spartans tallied double-digit kills in the championship match, led by Katelen Dixon, who posted a match-high 18 kills and five solo blocks. Danielle MacDonald added 15 kills, Erin Clark posted 13 kills, while Alisha Green and Tarah Marinelli added 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Gabriella Saade was a dominant force running the offense, as she registered 56 assists in the four-game match. On defense, Margeaux Sinibaldi came away with a match-best 28 digs.
Dixon, Sinibaldi, Green, MacDonald and Saade were selected to the National All-Tournament Team.
Top-ranked Tampa (35-1) earned a spot in the national championship match after defeating second-ranked Minnesota-Duluth in four games (30-27, 30-17, 21-30, 30-24) in Friday’s semifinal round. The Spartans opened Elite Eight play with a three-game sweep of Dowling (30-23, 30-27, 30-27) on Thursday.