FORT MYERS, Fla.- Riley Oglevie and Maria Petkova combined for 21 kills and just 2 errors, leading the Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers past the Palm Beach Panthers Saturday afternoon at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers.  With the win, the Bucs close out the season opening FSW Kick Off Classic 2-1.  

 

Playing the Panthers for the second time in less than 24 hours, the Bucs jumped on Palm Beach right off the bat, taking a 3-0 and then 7-3 lead to get things going in the first set.  A kill from Maria Petkova put FSW on top 14-7 midway through the first and they continued to pour it on later with Julia De Sa at the service line as they rolled off six in a row to extend their lead to 20-10. Another Petkova kill finished things off, giving the Bucs a 25-12 win in the set to go ahead 1-0 in the match.  FSW hit .484 in the set, siding out in 12 of 13 chances.  They finished with 15 kills without a single error in 31 attacks in the set.  

 

The Bucs got off to another good start in the second, this time with Petkova on the service line as Riley Oglevie picked up a pair of early kills to take a quick 6-2 advantage.  An ace from Oglevie later on made it a 12-5 lead in favor of the Bucs and they once again blew it open with De Sa serving and Petkova on the front line as a pair of kills from the freshman pushed the lead to 19-7. Yasso Amin finished it off for the Bucs, hammering home three kills in four points to give FSW a 25-11 win in the second to take a 2-0 lead in the match. Again the Bucs were electric offensively, hitting .435 as a squad with 14 kills in 23 swings in the period.  

 

It looked like FSW was just going to put it in cruise control as they raced out to another comfortable lead in the third.  It was 14-9 after a kill from De Sa before a 5-1 run for the Panthers made it a one point game at 15-14. An attack error for the Bucs moments later tied the score at 19 and Palm Beach took their first lead of the day at 22-20 as they looked to push the match to a fourth set.  Another Amin kill out of the middle woke the Bucs up and after a Palm Beach error and a Fiona Baker to Oglevie hook up on the right side, it was 23-22 FSW.  Another Panther mishap gave the Bucs three cracks at match point, but they would only need one as Petkova lasered an ace in to give the Bucs the set 25-22 and the win 3-0.  

 

The Bucs hit a season high .345 in the win, led by Petkova and Oglevie who both had big matches.  Petkova finished with 11 kills and just 1 error, good for a .526 hitting mark while Oglevie had 10 kills in just two sets while hitting .562.  Dishing it out to the pair was Baker who led the Bucs with 25 assists in the match  Viktoriya Ivanova and De Sa anchored the Bucs back line, both reaching double digits in digs in the win while Amin registered a team high 3 blocks.  

 

At the conclusion of the tournament, Petkova and Amin were both named to the All-Tournament Team. 

 

The win pushes FSW to 2-1 overall on the year while Palm Beach falls to 1-3.  

 

Things ramp back up for the Bucs next weekend when they fly to the Lone Star State of Texas to play in the Odessa Wrangler Classic.  The Bucs will battle four Top 20 ranked teams Friday and Saturday including Odessa who will likely be the country's #1 ranked squad after their 3-0 sweep of current #1 Navarro on Friday.