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Eight home matches — including the Saint Leo Invitational in the first weekend of September — highlight the Saint Leo University’s men’s soccer team’s schedule for the 2016 season.

Saint Leo opens the year with an exhibition game against Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) on Aug. 20. The regular season begins with the four-team Saint Leo Invitational from Sept. 2 through Sept. 4.

Following the Saint Leo Invitational, the Lions host the U.S. U17 men’s national team for an exhibition game on Sept. 10.

Saint Leo then opens the conference portion of their schedule on Sept. 14, when the team faces Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.

“As our summer winds down, our coaching staff is beginning to finalize our roster, which contains new and returning young, hardworking players from Florida, Japan, South America, and Europe,” head coach Keith Fulk said, in a release.

“We believe that this season will be filled with great effort, enthusiasm and enjoyment. We are looking forward to taking our program to next level,” Fulk adds.

Saint Leo returns 11 players from last year’s squad, which finished with a 10-7-1 record (5-2-1 in the Sunshine State Conference) and reached the NCAA Regional Second Round.

The 2016 Sunshine State Conference tournament will begin on Nov. 1.

 

The Saint Leo University’s women’s volleyball team’s upcoming schedule features matches against seven teams that qualified for the 2015 NCAA Division II Tournament.

“When putting this schedule together, I knew I wanted to challenge our team to fight for a chance to win the Sunshine State Conference (SSC) and go to the elite eight in the NCAA Tournament,” Samuel Cibrone said, in a release. “I knew in order to do this we had to play two tough tournaments at the beginning of the season to accomplish our goals.”

Saint Leo, coming off a 21-11 season, will open with a trip to Fort Lauderdale for the 2016 Shark Classic hosted by Nova Southeastern University. They open the season with the University of Arkansas at Monticello on Sept. 2, and have a follow-up with NCAA quarterfinalist Rockhurst (Kansas) University. In Day 2 of the tournament, the Lions face Bentley (Massachusetts) University and Southern Nazarene (Oklahoma) University in the tournament.

In the second weekend of play, the Lions travel to Denver, Colorado, to participate in the Colorado Premier Challenge, where they will face Concordia-St. Paul (Minnesota) University, an NCAA Third Round team, and Lewis (Illinois) University, an NCAA Second Round team.

Saint Leo will host Rollins College for its home opener on Sept. 23; it is one of the team’s 10 conference games at the Bowman Center.

“All 10 home conference games will be tough, and we hope to entertain our fans with a high-powered offense. Considering we only lost one pin player and one middle offensively, we should be able to get kills,” Cibrone said. “In addition, we did not graduate anyone from our back row, so our serve receive and defense should be tough.”

The team returns starting libero Jamee Townsend, a Second-Team All-SSC selection, and outside hitter Hope Lemon, an SSC Honorable Mention. The Lions will be without middle Jillian Stolzenburg, setter Ashlee Hodgskin and opposite Anna Siruckova.

The summer collegiate baseball season is in full swing, and several Saint Leo University players are making an impact throughout leagues across the east coast.

Here’s an update on individual player performance:

• Brett Coffel, playing for the Knights in the St. Louis (Missouri) Metro Collegiate Summer League, was selected to play in the league’s All-Star game on July 11. He is batting .256 with seven doubles, two triples, and one home run. His 14 RBIs are second most on the team.
• Derek Gibree is playing shortstop with the Winchester (Virginia) Royals of the Shenandoah Valley Baseball League. He is second on the team in hitting (.325 average), with seven doubles, seven RBIs and 14 runs scored. In 26 games, Gibree has a .959 fielding percentage with five errors in 121 chances.
• Shane Haight is playing for the Winter Garden Squeeze of the Florida Collegiate League (FCL), where he’s charted a 2.84 ERA in 19.0 innings. He currently leads the team in strikeouts (23) and was selected to play in the FCL All-Star Game.
• Dylan Collett is playing for the New Bedford (Massachusetts) Bay Sox of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. He has logged a 2.70 ERA over 16.2 innings pitched.
• Chad Miller is batting .279 for the Worcester (Massachusetts) Bravehearts of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. Miller has racked up four doubles, three triples, and two home runs for the Bravehearts; he also has 11 RBIs and 20 runs scored.
• Zack Sabo and Chase Turner are playing with the Lenoir (North Carolina) Oilers of the Carolina Virginia Collegiate League. Turner is third on the team in batting with a .333 average, 17 runs scored and 17 RBIs. Conversely, Sabo has batted .256 this summer with seven doubles, 12 RBIs and 15 runs scored.
• Dan Twitty is playing with the Leesburg Lightning of the Florida Collegiate League, where he’s posted a 3-0 record and a 1.01 ERA in 17.2 innings; he’s struck out 17 batters and has only allowed two earned runs.

Nine-year-old Malike Campbell won gold medals in sparring and forms at the 2016 Sunshine State Games 2016 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm. Campbell trains at Wesley Chapel Tae Kwon Do.

A total of 112 Saint Leo student-athletes were named to the Sunshine State Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll for the 2016 spring semester, according to a June 30 announcement by SSC Commissioner Ed Pasque.

The Lions also had 12 individuals with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

The Saint Leo men’s lacrosse team boasted 18 honorees, followed by women’s lacrosse and softball each having 14 student-athletes honored; women’s swimming added 13.

To be eligible for the spring semester Honor Roll, a student-athlete must post a minimum grade point average of a 3.20 on a 4.0 scale. Participants in men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming, women’s rowing, baseball, softball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s lacrosse were eligible for the spring honor roll.

Saint Leo student-athletes with a 4.0 GPA for the spring semester:

Women’s swimming: Isabella Bains, junior; Stephanie Martinez, senior; and,

Nicole Weber, junior

Women’s tennis: Marine Beugre-Guyot, junior, and Pauline Helgesson, senior

Men’s tennis: James Defusto, sophomore, and Guillaume Vanelven, senior

Other sports: Brittany Creamer, sophomore (softball); Allie Sheftall, senior (women’s lacrosse); Evan Jacob, senior (men’s swimming); Marie Coors, junior (women’s golf); and Colby Tyler, sophomore (men’s golf)

Here are some more signings and commitments:

• Gaither High School basketball standout Trevor Blackmon has signed a letter of intent with Walters State (Tennessee) Community College. The 6-foot-4 combo guard averaged 27 points per game for the Cowboys during his senior season.
• Wesley Chapel High School shortstop Zach Ghelfi has committed to play baseball at Pasco-Hernando State College next season. Ghelfi led the Wildcats in batting average (.400) and hits (28) as a senior in 2016. He also was tied for the team lead in doubles (7), triples (2) and stolen bases (8).
• Land O’ Lakes High School all-purpose back Rashawn Kindell has committed to play football at Angelo (Texas) State University, a Division II school. Kindell rushed for 526 yards (5.7 yards per carry) and also caught 22 passes for 310 yards as a senior last season.
• Land O’ Lakes High shortstop Max Law has committed to play baseball at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. The rising senior led the Gators in batting average (.387), hits (29) and stolen bases (7) in 2016.

Despite an injury setback, Zephyrhills High School running back Antwione Sims’s college scholarship offer list continues to grow. Sims tore his anterior cruciate ligament, more commonly called ACL, in March. He recently received offers from the U.S. Naval Academy on June 30 and the University of South Alabama on June 23. The 5-foot-11, 193-pound back also has scholarship offers from Boston College, Bryant (Rhode Island) University, Mercer (Georgia) University, North Dakota State University, Presbyterian (South Carolina) College, University of South Dakota, Southern Illinois University, Troy (Alabama) University and Wofford (South Carolina) College. Sims ran for a school-record 2,093 yards and 24 touchdowns last season. He is expected to miss several games in 2016 due to the ACL injury.

“He’s going to get on the field as fast as he can,” first-year Bulldogs coach Nick Carroll said in April. “I know he’s very, very motivated.”

Various football-recruiting services list Sims as either a two-star or three-star recruit.

Freedom High girls basketball standout Megan Clark committed to Tennessee Tech University on June 27. The rising senior averaged 14.7 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game in the 2015-2016 season. The 5-foot-8 shooting guard is Freedom’s top returning scorer and rebounder from last season. TTU hired Kim Rosamund as its new head coach in March.