FORT MYERS, Fla.- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers top hitter in program history will continue to wear purple for all four years of her collegiate career; just for the next two years, it will have a different accent color.  Tuesday, FSW sophomore Julia De Sa signed her National Letter of Intent with James Madison University where she will head to Harrisonburg, Virginia to play for the 2018 Colonial Athletic Association Champion Dukes.  

 

De Sa is the only player in FSW history to have played in every match of her career, seeing action in all 44 contests for the Bucs over the past two seasons. She is the Bucs all-time kills leader with 481 and ranks second in digs with 344.  

 

De Sa is a two time 1st Team All-Suncoast Conference selection and has been named the FCSAA Player of the Week twice during her FSW career.  She has topped the 10 kill mark 26 times in her career and in the Bucs past two matches, has hit the 20 kill mark with a career high 22 against Hillsborough and 20 in FSW's next outing against Indian River.  She has eight career double-doubles, recording four as a freshman in 2019 and four more this season as a sophomore. De Sa currently ranks third in the state with 227 kills on the year and ranks second in hitting percentage among players with 175 or more kills, at .280. 

 

She is also a star in the classroom where she was named to both the Suncoast Conference and FCSAA All-Academic Teams a year ago as a freshman.  

 

De Sa and the Bucs won their first Suncoast Conference Championship in program history this season with a perfect 8-0 record and have compiled a 16-4 overall mark to head to the 2021 postseason ranked 7th in the latest NJCAA National Rankings. 

 

She will join a James Madison program perennially at the top of the Colonial Athletic Association standings. A season ago, the Dukes were 20-8 and were just one win away from reaching the NCAA Tournament. Early on this season, JMU is 4-1 and 3-0 in CAA play.  

 

De Sa and the Bucs will begin their postseason run on Thursday at the FCSAA State Tournament when they take on Suncoast Conference rival Hillsborough at 7 PM in Jacksonville.  

 

De Sa joins fellow sophomores Kianie Cummings (East Carolina), Yasso Amin (UTEP), Viktoriya Ivanova (Gonzaga), Amanda Mendes (Arkansas-Pine Bluff), and Giovanna Bello (Park) to sign NLIs this season.