ODESSA, Texas- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers continued a tough weekend of competition on Saturday in Texas, squaring off with a pair of NJCAA Top 10 ranked opponents in #10 Trinity Valley and #5 Odessa.  The Bucs took it to Trinity Valley in their first match of the day, breezing to a 3-0 win before dropping a five set heartbreaker to Odessa in their final match of their trip to the Lone Star State.  

 

FSW dominated Trinity Valley in their first match of the day.  The Bucs jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first set against the Cardinals, getting three kills from Yasso Amin and two from Riley Oglevie with Julia De Sa at the service line to take control early on.  They continued to pour it on, blowing it open to 20-8 on a kill from De Sa before finishing the Cardinals off 25-10 to go ahead 1-0 in the match.  

 

The second set was no different.  Again the Bucs raced out to a hot start, taking a 10-2 lead on a kill from Maria Petkova on the outside.  After Trinity Valley got it back to a five point game, the Bucs went on a 9-0 run, highlighted by a pair of bullets from Katie Dickey to push the FSW lead to 10-6.  With Viktoriya Ivanova at the service line, the Bucs finished the Cards off, scoring the final five of the set to win it 25-8 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.  FSW had a season high 19 kills in the set, hitting .457 as a team in the period. 

 

The Bucs moved their lineup around a little bit in the third, but still had the same success.  With the score 4-3 early on, a 6-2 run for the Bucs cushioned their lead to 10-5 as the set approached its midway point.  An ace from Ivanova and a kill from Kianie Cummings opened up a 10 point lead for the Bucs at 17-7 and they put things in cruise control from there, finishing off a 25-18 win to sweep the match 3-0.  

 

FSW hit .392 in the match, led by Cummings who finished with 10 kills on 14 swings out of the middle.  Amin had 12 kills for the Bucs while De Sa had 11.  Fiona Baker quarterbacked the offense and dished out 32 assists for the Purple and Aqua while Ivanova anchored the backline with 16 digs. The Bucs had six blocks as a team led by Amin with four and two each from Valentim and Cummings.  

 

 

In their final match of the weekend, the Bucs took on #5 Odessa, the other undefeated team left in the Wrangler Classic. 

 

Odessa got out to a good start on their home floor, jumping out to a 7-3 lead to get things going.  The Bucs recovered though, coming back to even up the score at 11 before going ahead on back to back kills from Oglevie.  FSW continued to push, eventually going up by as many as eight before finishing the Wranglers off 25-19. 

 

The second set looked like it was going to be another good one as the two teams found themselves tied at 6 after 12 points. From there it was all Wranglers as FSW committed four straight hitting errors to allow Odessa to push out in front and they never recovered as the Wranglers took it to the Bucs to the tune of a 25-13 victory to even the match at one. 

 

In the third, it was FSW taking advantage of Odessa mistakes as back to back hitting errors and a net violation midway through the set allowed the Bucs to push out in front 12-9. A kill by De Sa moments later made it a 16-10 contest and Odessa never threatened again.  Back to back blocks for the Bucs gave them set point and a kill from Petkova sealed the deal 25-17 to put the Bucs ahead 2-1 in the match. 

 

The fourth set was all Bucs right up until the end.  FSW got out to a 10-6 lead to begin the period and continued to hold a four point lead to 19-15 later in the set.  Four straight for the Wranglers tied the score at 19 and the two teams went back and forth to 22-22.  Three points later, a kill from Oglevie gave the Bucs match point, but a service error quickly erased that chance and sent the set on past 25.  The Bucs had multiple chances to win it, but just couldn't get the ball to fall on the Wrangler side of the floor and Odessa forced a deciding fifth set as they took the fourth 27-25. 

 

It was a battle of wills in the fifth with both teams playing their final set of a long weekend. It was good early on as neither team led by more than a single point with the score 8-7 at the imaginary changeover.  Three straight for the Wranglers pushed Odessa ahead 10-8, but a solo block from De Sa got FSW back to within one moments later.  It was all Odessa from there however as the Wranglers got kills on the final four points of the match, closing out a 15-10 victory to steal the win out of the Bucs grasp 3-2.  

 

A number of program records were set in the loss for FSW.  Baker's 46 assists and Ivanova's 26 digs were both the most in program history while Oglevie's .345 hitting percentage in the match was the best in a five set match in program history.  Team records that went down were kills (61), attacks (177), and digs (72) in a match for the Bucs.  

 

Outside of the record breakers, four Bucs had double digit kills including 15 for Amin and 14 each from Petkova and De Sa on the outside. Both De Sa and Petkova notched double-doubles with 14 and 11 digs respectively. FSW had 11 blocks as a team in the loss with Cummings getting in on eight and Oglevie four.  

 

 

The Bucs finish their weekend at the Wrangler Classic 3-1 and move to 5-2 overall on the season.  All four opponents for FSW on the weekend are either ranked in the Top 10 Nationally or played in the NJCAA National Tournament a season ago. 

 

After returning back to Fort Myers, the Bucs will have the week off before taking on Palm Beach on the road Friday.