By Kyle Coppola
Lake-Sumter State College Volleyball Starts Year Undefeated
Lake-Sumter State College volleyball kicked off the 2025 season in Wilmington, N.C., at the Cape Fear Tournament. The Lakehawks went a perfect 4-0 over the weekend, including a 3-0 win over No. 16 Walters State.
Freshman Samantha Beatty posted a pair of double-doubles in her collegiate debut. Against Walters State, she recorded 14 kills and 13 digs, followed by a 12-kill, 14-dig performance against the College of Southern Maryland.
(Tavares High graduate Sammi Beatty “left” stands next to Giada Viti “right”.)
Beatty led the conference’s opening weekend in kills per set with 4.33.
Brooke Fintak also shined on the court, posting five kills and 13 digs against Walters State. Emma Grace Bilvins recorded five kills and seven digs against CoSM.
Libero Joselyn Wanberg added 26 digs in the Lakehawks’ first two matches.
The Lakehawks will be back on the road Tuesday, Aug. 26, for a non-conference matchup against Santa Fe College.
Lakehawk Volleyball will make its home debut on Wednesday, Sept. 3, against South Florida State College to kick off Sun-Lakes Conference play.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
