Leesburg, Fla. – In what has been an unprecedented approach to athletics in 2020, some normalcy returned to three Lake-Sumter State College programs as their seasons started over the weekend.

Volleyball hit the road for their first match of the year against NJCAA sanctioned Division I, Santa Fe College. The Saints won the Panhandle Conference in 2019 with an 11-12, 5-1 record on the year. LSSC, who is coming off a 7-12, 6-5, was extremely competitive with one of the top teams in the state. The Lakehawks lost in three sets, with scores of 25-23, 25-20 and 25-21.

Aleisha Marcano led the team with nine digs and added five kills. Volleyball will be traveling to Pensacola this weekend to take on Pearl River CC (MS) and Wallace-State CC-Hanceville (AL).

LSSC baseball ended the 2020 shortened season with the best conference record from the MFC at 5-1 and 16-11 overall. Coach Billing's team opened up at home on Friday against Eastern Florida State College. Lake-Sumter gave the fans a memorable opening day after winning in walk-off fashion, 8-7, in 11 innings. The team hit the road to meet up with the Titans in Melbourne the very next day. Offense was king as the Lakehawks outscored their opponent, 15-12, to start the season 2-0.

Chance Pollard opened the year with four hits on the weekend while driving in three RBI's and scored four times. Naphis Llanos collected three hits of his own and swiped two bags between the two games. Zander Eastburn and Caleb Wood both earned wins from the bump over the weekend.

With a shortened 2021 season record of 17-15, softball was eager to get back on the diamond in 2021. Saturday marked opening day for softball, who welcomed Webber International JV to the HawksNest. The bats came out in both games for LSSC who swept the Warriors by scores of 8-0 and 12-3.

Alyssa Dragovich tossed a complete game shutout in game one, on 71 pitches to earn her first collegiate win. Cissy Doolittle threw five strong innings in game two to start the season 1-0. Genesis Aviles made a big impact with a grand slam home run in the first game. Brittany Shirley, Alyssa Opsahl and Jeritza Montero all totaled three hits on the weekend and combined for six RBI's.

The team will head to South Florida State College for their first road game of the new season Tuesday.

You can follow stats for all of the teams and live streaming for home events at our website throughout the season.