Women's Volleyball Plays for NCAA National Championship

The No. 1 ranked University of Tampa Spartans volleyball team (33-1) earned a trip to the NCAA Division II National Championship game, Friday night, with a 3-1 victory (25-9, 25-17, 21-25, 25-17) over the Arkansas Fort-Smith Lions (29-5) in the Final Four contest. The triumph marks the Spartans' sixth trip to the National Championship.

Senior All-American Meagan Burke gave the No. 1 Spartans the first point of the contest, and Tampa’s offense was ignited from there. Rallying off nearly six straight points, Tampa’s momentum forced the Arkansas Fort-Smith Lions to utilize both timeouts early – the first at 6-1 and the second at 14-3. Despite the attempts to slow Tampa’s offensive surge, multiple kills from Burke, Megan Heffron, Jessica Wagner, Berkley Whaley and Marissa Lisenbee propelled the Spartans to a 25-10 first set victory. When the whistle blew to end the set, Tampa had recorded 14 block assists, allowing just six Lions kills.

Tampa will compete against Southwest Minnesota State in the 2014 National Championship contest on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the Division II Festival of Championships in Louisvile, KY. The two teams met previously this season on Sep. 12, when the Mustangs handed the Spartans their only loss of the year at the Colorado Premier Classic tournament in Colorado.

Live stats will be made available through www.tampaspartans.com.

Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans). UT also offers blAst, a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events. To sign up, please register at www.tampaspartans.com.