Jan. 16, 2008

The 2007 St. Thomas volleyball team experienced peaks and valleys, both should help what was a young team learn and see success in the future.

The team entered their first tournament of the season 1-1 fresh from a three game thrashing of Southern Wesleyan. Bringing too much for the opposition was Adriana Montialla and Maria Roman, a consistent combination for the Bobcats throughout the season. At their first tournament hosted by Embry-Riddle the Bobcats lost focus, losing both of their matches at the tournament.

The aforementioned lost focus was not rediscovered by the Bobcats until the team played Florida Memorial. Unfortunately six matches were played in between the Embry-Riddle Tournament and the Florida Memorial match. The team sputtered through that stretch winning one match.

The win during the six game skid was against Edward Watters, three games to none. That win was not the sole good news related to the team, Roman was named FSC Player of the Week. She was honored for her play in two matches. For the week she totaled 30 kills ten more than the next conference nominee for player of the week. She also managed 10 blocks (eight solos).

Her play was inspirational yet getting everything to click for the ladies would continue to be a problem as conference play would begin. Over the next eight matches the ladies would drop all eight forcing more than three games in only one of the best out of five matches.

The Bobcats would rebound before their home fans and put together their only winning streak of the season defeating both Edward Watters and Florida Memorial. The Bobcats' two match winning streak completed a season sweep of both teams with only one lost game. All the Bobcats played well during the two matches, but Karla Vargas shinned displaying what she is capable of delivering 20 kills total.

The Bobcats would get their next win against Warner Southern after losing two in a row. The match against Warner Southern was over in three and gave the Bobcats momentum heading into the Region XIV tournament Quarterfinal hosted by Northwood. Playing against the host team did not work in the Bobcats favor as the home crowd boosted Northwood by the Bobcats in three games.

The team does have some things to build on as they make the transition to NCAA Division II with the rest of athletics at St. Thomas. Montilla earned the FSC Region XIV Newcomer of the Year honors averaging 3.00 kills and 4.15 digs per game.

The team can look forward to her growth and the continued growth of Roman. She lead the team in kills with 218 one more than Montialla, and made 23 solo blocks second most on the team behind Ashlee Guerrero's 25.