The Santa Fe Saints hosted the Hillsborough Community College Hawks in a conference matchup. The Saints came into this matchup off a 0-3 road loss to the Polk State Eagles on Saturday, and the Hawks came off a 3-0 home win to the Indian River State Pioneers Saturday night.

The Saints fall to the Hawks in 3 sets. 22-25, 17-25, 18-25

The Saints and Hawks went toe to toe through the first 6 points to start the first set at a score of 3-3. The two teams continued to go back and forth which brought the score to 10-10. The Hawks pulled out to a 14-11 lead, but a kill from Nacero brought the Saints back to within 2 bringing the score back to 14-12. The Saints called their first timeout after going down 12-17 to try and gain back some momentum. Immediately after the timeout, Solomon recorded a nice block and Blanco subsequently followed up the block with a kill to bring the score to 14-17. The Hawks called their first time out at 17-19 due to the Saints scoring three consecutive points. Nields recorded a kill immediately after the Hawks' timeout to bring the score to 18-19. After the Hawks went up 20-18, the Saints scored three consecutive points to force the Hawks to call their second and final timeout of the set at 21-20. Following the Hawks second timeout, they were able to gain back some momentum forcing the Saints to call their second and final timeout at 24-22. The Hawks scored immediately after the Saints final timeout taking the first set with a score of 22-25.

The Hawks picked up right where they left off as they jumped out to a 6-1 lead to start the second set. A series of attack errors by the Hawks brought the Saints back to a score of 6-7. Blanco performed two impressive kills to bring the Saints back within two on separate occasions, but the Hawks continued to hold the lead over the Saints. The Saints called their first timeout at 8-13. Immediately following the timeout, Nields slammed two kills home to bring the score back to 10-13. The Hawks stormed back after Nields' kills to make it 10-18. The Saints showed some fight in their attempt to comeback, but ultimately fell to the Hawks 17-25.

The Saints and Hawks start off the third set toe to toe yet again as a service ace by Larissa Seger-Griebeler brought the set to a 3-3 tie. The Hawks would go on to score the next 6 points to force the Saints to call their first timeout at 3-9.  The Saints scored the first point after the timeout due to a blocking error on the Hawks to bring the score to 4-9. The Hawks continued to hold the lead, but an impressive set of kills by Blanco and Seger-Griebeler brought the score to 7-13. A service ace by Pino brought the score to 8-13 as the Saints gained back some momentum. As the Saints gained more momentum, the Hawks called their first timeout of the set at 10-14. A kill by Nacero and a service ace by Seger-Griebeler brought the Saints back within two forcing a score of 14-16. The Hawks would then go on to score the next 6 points causing the Saints to call their second and final timeout at 14-22. Following the timeout, the Saints gained some momentum back as they scored three points in a row to bring the score to 17-22. The Saints would only go on to score one more point in their attempt to comeback, but ultimately fell to the Hawks with a final score of 18-25.

The Saints will host the Indian River State Pioneers on Saturday afternoon at 2:00PM for a Citrus Conference matchup. The 7-11 Pioneers are coming off a 1-3 loss at home to Eastern Florida State College.

Article by: Bryan Denton