JACKSONVILLE, Fla.- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers wrapped up a 3-0 weekend at the FSCJ Tournament of Champions on Saturday, defeating Eastern Florida 3-0 in their first match of the morning, followed by a 3-1 win over Virginia's Richard Bland to push them to 7-3 on the year.
The Bucs set the tone for their first match against Eastern Florida right off the bat, jumping out to an 11-4 lead in the first set behind four big kills early on from Julia de Sa and Amanda Mendes. A 5-1 run got the Titans back into it momentarily, but FSW answered with a 7-2 run of their own to open the lead back up to 19-12. A kill by Yasso Amin on an overpass gave the Bucs set point and Friday's star de Sa finished the Titans off with a rip down the line to give FSW the set 25-15 and a 1-0 lead in the match. It was the Bucs best offensive set of the season as they pounded down 18 kills and had just one error to hit .500 in the period.
The second set was close early on with the two teams trading the first eight points to 4-4, but FSW scored eight of the next nine to open up a 13-5 lead that they would never look back from. A kill from Kianie Cummings in the middle pushed the Bucs lead to 10 at 17-7 and they held that advantage to 20-10 on a blast from Lexi Hurtado. As they did in the first, FSW finished off the Titans 25-15 in the end to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match. It wasn't necessarily the Bucs firepower that helped them to the set victory as Eastern committed 13 hitting errors, hitting -.235 in the set to giftwrap the FSW win.
Much like the second, both teams felt their way out to start the third with FSW holding a slight 6-5 lead after 11 points. From there it was all Bucs though as FSW rolled off six straight to stretch their lead to six at 12-6 and later pushed that to eight at 20-12 on a Marina Alonso to Laura Ferrao hook up in the middle. The Bucs block took them to the finish line as Mendes and Cummings combined on a stuff on the outside and Amin and Ferrao did the same two points later as FSW closed the Titans out 25-14 to sweep the match 3-0.
The Bucs put together their second straight solid offensive contest, hitting .379 as a team with 39 kills and just six errors. De Sa again paced the FSW attack with 12 kills while Mendes had eight and hit .467 in the win. Alonso distributed a team best 28 assists while Giovanna Bello pulled up 16 digs in her first start of the year. The Bucs outblocked Eastern 9-0, getting four blocks a piece from Cummings, Amin, and Ferrao.
Looking to finish off a perfect weekend, the Bucs came out on fire in their second match of the day against Richard Bland, beginning the match ahead 12-3 and holding that advantage to 21-12 later in the set. As they did their first two sets against Eastern Florida earlier in the morning, FSW finished off the Statesmen 25-15, grabbing an early 1-0 lead in the match. The Bucs hit .542 in the set with 16 kills and just one error.
The second followed much of the same script with FSW taking control right off the bat and never looking back. The Bucs jumped out to a 10-5 lead and stretched that to 15-7 midway through the set. They were never challenged in the period as they again picked up a 25-15 win to go in front 2-0.
The Bucs went to their bench in the third set and the move didn't work out well for the Purple and Aqua. For the first time all weekend, the Bucs found themselves in a hole midway through as Richard Bland took a 13-9 lead on an FSW error. The Bucs never recovered, falling 25-15 as the Statemen forced a fourth set. After hitting .542 in the first set the Bucs took a huge step back in the third, hitting -.074 with just six kills and eight errors in the lopsided win for Richard Bland.
With their starters back in, the Bucs went to work right away in the fourth, taking right at the Statemen to the tune of an 8-2 advantage to start the set. That lead ballooned to double digits midway through the set and the Bucs made sure there was no drama as they hammered the Statesmen 25-10 to seal up the 3-1 victory.
All 15 players on the FSW roster saw action in the victory. The Bucs hit .241 in the win, getting another stellar performance on the right side from Mendes who led FSW with 12 kills and a .688 hitting percentage in the match. De Sa added nine kills and Leweling chipped in seven for the victors. Alonso again set the bar in the assist column for the Bucs with 27 while Bello and de Sa reached double figures in digs with 13 and 10 respectively. Seven different players combined for seven blocks for the Bucs, led by Ferrao with four and Cummings with three.
FSW improves to 7-3 with the 3-0 weekend. The Bucs have now won five straight overall.
The Bucs will have some time off before taking the floor again next weekend when they travel to Miami to take on #4 Miami Dade Friday and Broward Saturday, both for the second time this season.