Video on the Road TONIGHT

The live video feed is following the Lions on the road! Tonight Saint Leo's match at Eckerd College will be shown live through the SLU athletics site, thanks to Penn Atlantic! We hope everyone gets to check it out and see how we look in a different gym!

NCAA Article

Saint Leo Sports Information Director Evan Ortiz let the coaching staff know of some national recognition for the Lions. On the NCAA website, Amy Farnum writes a weekly blog on Division II volleyball and this week Saint Leo leads it off!

Click here to link to the article, and here's hoping for more good news coming the Lions' way!

White Out Countdown

While we are DEFINITELY not looking past this week's opponents (Eckerd and Tampa are no joke!), Saint Leo Volleyball is excited to announce our 2nd Annual White Out! Last year we had a Division II record crowd of 500+ and we want to top it this year!

Tuesday, October 6th
7:00pm
WHITE OUT
vs. Florida Southern

WOOT WOOT!

Not only a three-peat, but a sweep of conference awards and a Top 25 Ranking! Junior Kaitlin McKenna claimed her third straight SSC Offensive Player of the Week Award and was joined by teammate Bruna Rocha who received this week's SSC Defensive Player of the Week! Along with the individual accolades, Saint Leo made it's first appearance in the AVCA Top 25 Poll, showing up in the #23 slot, joining 6 other SSC teams in the poll!

Click here to visit the Lion's website with both write-ups!

Chris' Corner: Tricks of the trade from your friendly neighboorhod Certified Athletic Trainer

Welcome to another stop at Chris' Corner. This week my educational ramblings will cover a subject near and dear to many of us out there, including yours truly......low back pain. It's safe to say that the majority of us have experienced low back pain at one time or another. It's frustrating, it's debilitating, it affects almost everything you do. Lets look at some of the root causes and a relatively easy solution to this all too common problem. In the minority of cases pain is caused by a congenital abnormality in the spine, think scoliosis. Such abnormalities result in forces being distributed along the spine in a way that places too much stress on particular segments of the vertebral column. No matter if the structural problem is in the lumbar, thoracic or cervical area it can effect other segments of the spine. Conversely, all too often low back pain results from our placing too much stress on the lumbar spine through our own actions, think bending at the waist rather than bending the legs to pick something up. Such activity places a tremendous amount of stress on the extensor muscles, vertebra and disks in the lumbar (low back) region. The end result being a muscle strain, ligament sprain (see previous Chris' Corner for a discussion on strains vs sprains), disk herniation or vertebra being pulled out of alignment. An easy prescription to solve low back pain is core exercise. Any of my athletes who have taken part in "Camp Chris" know that I love core exercise! Core exercise solves low back pain by promoting stability in the pelvis and lumbar spine through strengthening the core musculature (i.e. transverse abdominis, internal and external obliques, multifidus and quadratus lumborum). This stability allows the pelvis and spine to stay in proper alignment meaning forces are distributed in such a way that prevents injury. To learn specific core exercises Google "core exercise" or ask your Certified Athletic Trainer.

On the court this week was great. The team went to 4-0 in the conference and it was parents weekend. It was nice to meet some of the parents of the athletes I provide care for. After our thrashing of Barry I got to break bread with the team and their families. Little things like that are a big reason I love working with volleyball so much. It might sound insignificant but as an Athletic Trainer you are not always included in such things. It's easy to see why this group is chock full of quality people. No road trips this week so no down time to settle the score with LP. No worries though, soon enough the rivalry will be renewed.

Remember to lift with the legs and do your core exercise. See you next week at Chris' Corner.

Fans of the Match!

Parent's Weekend has been great! It was wonderful seeing so many families and spending time with all of them. However, our fans of the match have to go to four very special members of the Saint Leo Men's Swim Team...

They each wore 26 articles of clothing, removing one for every point the Lions scored, leaving them in just their Speedos! They did this each set, and we are so grateful for their support! It was probably the funniest fan behavior ever experienced at Leo!

Look to the SLU Volleyball PhotoBucket page for more pictures from the weekend, including all the families and the VIP Couch!

Team Win!

WOW! All I can say is wow! A total team effort to handle the Knights of Lynn this evening: Michelle had a triple-double, Bruna had 20 digs, Kait had 14 kills, and as a team we dug 76 balls in the match. The coaches and players are on cloud nine with the play we just saw, but know that we have to come down to earth tomorrow as we face another highly talented SSC team as Barry comes in. The match is at 4:00pm with a dinner afterwards for parent's weekend!