FORT MYERS, Fla.- One year ago, the Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers, in their inaugural season, made a trip to Winter Haven to take on Polk State in what was a forgettable afternoon for the Bucs as the Eagles manhandled them in a 3-0 sweep. Thursday night in Suncoast Credit Union Arena, the now 12th ranked Bucs flipped the script, dominating in a 3-0 sweep of #9 Polk in a key Suncoast Conference match up for the two.
Early on it was a back and forth battle between two of the top 12 teams in the latest NJCAA rankings. A 6-0 run for FSW with Yasso Amin at the service line opened things up for the Bucs and they never looked back in the set. A kill from Katie Dickey and then a second ball kill from setter Fiona Baker pushed the FSW lead to 19-10 before a kill over the block from Kellen Valentim gave the Bucs set point. A tough serve from Viktoriya Ivanova pushed the Eagles out of system and the Bucs took the point and the set 25-11 to go ahead 1-0 in the match. The Bucs were on fire offensively in the first set, hitting .419 as a team with 16 kills on 31 swings. They limited Polk on the other hand to just five kills and a .095 hitting mark to take the early lead in the match.
The start of the second was almost unbelievable. With Julia De Sa at the service line, FSW rolled off the first 11 points of the period, highlighted by four kills from Valentim as they opened up an 11-0 lead on the Eagles. Slowly, Polk crept back in, trimming the Bucs lead to seven and then four before an FSW timeout. An ace for the Eagles made it a three point game, but a kill from Amin out of the middle cushioned the Bucs advantage back to four at 22-18. FSW scored two of the next three to give themselves four cracks at the set and a Polk serve long on their second try sealed the deal as the Bucs took the set 25-21 to go ahead in the match 2-0.
FSW got off to another good start in the third as Baker distributed the ball to a number of her hitters as De Sa, Valentim, and Dickey each put away kills to give the Bucs an early 5-1 lead. It remained a four point game later on when a big serve from Amin gave the Bucs back the ball on a free ball and Baker found De Sa again to push their lead to 11-6. The Bucs looked like they were going to put things in cruise control to the finish line of the sweep, but Polk had other ideas. The Eagles fought back to tie the score at 20 and went blow for blow with the Bucs to 22-22. The Bucs squeaked ahead 24-23 and with their first chance at closing out the win, did so, as Baker connected with Amin for a thunderous kill to give FSW the set 25-23 and the match 3-0.
The Bucs again clicked offensively in the victory, hitting .352 as a team while holding Polk to just a .217 mark. Valentim had a career high 13 kills for FSW while Amin had 11 and hit .561 in the middle. De Sa finished off nine kills for the Bucs and Kianie Cummings had one of her best offensive showings of her career, picking up seven kills with a .462 hitting percentage. Baker notched 39 assists to lead the way for the Bucs while Ivanova flew all over the back line in the win, digging up 15 Eagle attacks to anchor the defense.
The win over the 9th ranked Eagles is the third of the season for FSW over a top 15 ranked opponent and matches the highest ranked team they have defeated in program history.
FSW improves to 8-2 overall and 2-0 in Suncoast Conference play with the victory while Polk State falls to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in league play.
The Bucs will continue their murderer's row portion of their schedule on Sunday when they take on #6 Daytona State at 11:00 AM and #1 Miami Dade at 4:00 PM in Suncoast Credit Union Arena.