FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #1 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers were stunned in the FCSAA State Semifinals on Friday, dropping a five set battle to Polk State to snap an 18 game win streak and end the Bucs chances at their first State Championship.  

 

Things got off to a good start for the Bucs who were playing Polk for the third straight match. A pair of early aces in the first by Deborah Ribeiro had FSW out to a 6-2 lead and they stretched it to 17-10 on a Fiona Baker to Barbara Koehler hookup on the outside.  The Bucs continued to push, eventually finishing off the set on a kill by Maria Cecilia and an ace from Koehler to take it 25-12 and go ahead 1-0 in the match.  

 

In the second it was more of the same.  Once again the Bucs led the period 6-2 to get things going and were able to hold that lead to the middle of the set at 13-9 after a kill from Ribeiro in the middle.  The Bucs stretched their advantage to six late in the set after back to back Polk errors and finished the Eagles off with a kill from Maria Petkova on an overpass to win the set 25-18 and go ahead 2-0. 

 

The Bucs couldn't carry their momentum over into the third as Polk was the aggressors early to jump out to an 11-5 lead.  It continued to be a six point advantage for the Eagles to 19-13 before a mini run for the Bucs got them to within four at 21-17 after a kill by Riley Oglevie.  But that was as close as FSW would get as the Eagles finished the set strong with their backs to the wall to take the set 25-20 and extend it to a fourth set. 

 

The fourth was a nip and tuck battle as the two teams were locked at 8-8 early on and 14-14 midway through the period.  The Eagles pushed ahead by a pair, but two straight by the Bucs including a kill from Elissa Alcantara evened the score up once again, this time at 19.  The teams traded the next six points to 22-22, but it was Polk taking the final three to win the set 25-22 and force a deciding fifth set. 

 

The Bucs looked like they had the wagons circled in the fifth though as they jumped out to a 6-2 lead after back to back kills from Koehler and held the four point cushion to 10-6. The Bucs stretched their lead to 14-8 on a kill by Ribeiro in the middle and looked like they had the win in the bag, but back came the Eagles.  A kill followed by a block and an FSW ball handling error allowed the Eagles a window to get back into the game at 14-11 and another stuff and two more FSW errors had it a 14-14 game in the blink of an eye.  The Eagles third block in six points gave them their first match point, but a kill from Alcantara held that off for the time being and tied the score at 15.  The teams traded service errors to 16-16 when the Bucs 13th hiccup on serve gave Polk a 17-16 lead.  With the match on the line, a Buc attack went long and the Eagle bench exploded onto the court as Polk came from behind for an 18-16 win to take the match 3-2. 

 

The Bucs set an FCSAA State Tournament record in the loss with 70 kills as a team, 30 more than the Eagles' 40. Where Polk won the statistical battle was at the net where they outblocked FSW 15-5 and at the service line where the Bucs committed 13 service errors to just 2 for the Eagles. 

 

Individually Koehler led the way with a career high 21 kills for FSW while Cecilia had 14 and Alcantara 12.  Ribeiro had 10 kills and 3 blocks to set the new FSW single season record with 118 while Yuju Lee led the Bucs with 29 assists and Arianna Rossi paced FSW with 18 digs.  

 

FSW sees a program record 18 game winning streak come to an end as they lose for the first time in over two months to fall to 21-3 while Polk improves to 9-11 and will take on #4 Miami Dade for a State Championship Saturday. 

 

The Bucs drop to the consolation bracket where they will take on Indian River Saturday at 1 PM in Suncoast Credit Union Arena.