Although the University of Tampa Women’s Volleyball program has won 21 Sunshine State Conference Championships since the program began conference play in 1983, there are no guarantees that the 2012 Women’s team will win the SSC this year. The only guarantee in sports is that it takes hard work and determination for a team to win any game, let alone a conference title.
The Sunshine State Conference is an extremely competitive conference that boasts some of the nation’s best volleyball teams and players. However, as of September 25, UT was the only team from the SSC in the Top 25. Even though UT is the highest ranked team, there are no easy victories in such a competitive conference.
Despite the Spartans’ high national ranking, this season has not been without a few bumps in the road. After an early season loss to No. 5 Central Missouri, the team went on to win four straight games. During the four-game win streak, the team only lost one set. The smooth sailing came to an abrupt halt when the team was swept in straight sets by then-No. 14 West Texas A&M during the Colorado Premier Challenge in Denver.
The team managed to regroup after its loss to West Texas and defeat No. 22 Flagler College in an away game. Last weekend UT kicked off its SSC schedule with games against Rollins College and Florida Tech. During its first game against Rollins, the team displayed its eagerness to begin conference place by defeating Rollins in three straight sets (25-13, 25-19 and 25-14). The Spartans showed their offensive prowess with four different Spartans recording at least three kills.
It was more of the same from the Spartans against Florida Tech, where they swept their second SSC opponents in three straight sets and improved their record to 9-2 overall (2-0 in SSC play). The real test comes Friday September 28 at 8 p.m. against UT rival Florida Southern College for Tampa’s home opener.
With the season nearing the halfway point and conference play getting underway, it will be interesting to see how the Spartans can handle the tough competition of the SSC. Furthermore, even though last season ended with the Spartans coming home from the NCAA tournament empty-handed, that has only motivated this year’s team to push itself in order to position itself for a potential NCAA Championship run.
“Right now we are working really hard to get better,” Holly Reschke said on the team’s work ethic. “It would be so awesome if we could win the conference, it would show that all our hard work has paid off!”
J.P. Haney can be reached at johnpatrick.haney@spartans.ut.edu