JACKSONVILLE, Fla.- A season ago the roles were reversed.  The Hillsborough Hawks were the Suncoast Conference Champions and clinched their spot in the FCSAA State Tournament early while the upstart Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers found out at the last minute, literally, that they would be headed to Jacksonville for a first round matchup with the Hawks.  Hillsborough handled the Bucs in that match and eventually ended FSW's season later in the tournament.  This season, it was the Suncoast Conference Champion and #6 Nationally ranked Bucs giving Hillsborough a taste of their own medicine, hammering the Hawks 3-0 in the opening round of the 2020-2021 FCSAA State Tournament Thursday to advance in the winner's bracket of the tournament where they will face #8 Polk State Friday.  

 

Back to back blocks for the Bucs early in the first set spurred a 6-1 run to give FSW a 7-3 lead on Hillsborough. With the score 9-4 in favor of the Bucs moments later, Yasso Amin put together an eight point stand at the service line to open up a 16-4 advantage for FSW. A big block from Julia De Sa and Kianie Cummings gave the Bucs a 20-7 lead before a kill over top of the block from Kellen Valentim gave FSW their first crack at set point, leading 24-9.  They didn't waste any time as Fiona Baker floated an ace in against the Hawks defense, clinching a 25-9 first set win for FSW. 

 

The Bucs and Hawks played relatively even early in the second until back to back kills from Maria Petkova and Julia De Sa pushed them out to a 10-5 lead.  They stretched that lead to 17-7 on back to back blocks from Cummings and continued to lead big late into the set at 21-12. A 4-1 run from Hillsborough made things interesting, but the Bucs scored the final three points of the set thanks in part to an ace from Viktoriya Ivanova and a kill from Amin to seal the set 25-16 and give the Bucs a 2-0 lead in the match. 

 

FSW got off to a dreadful start in the third as Hillsborough jumped out to a quick 8-3 lead before the ink dried on the two team's lineup sheets.  A kill from Valentim got the Bucs back on track and they scored 9 of the next 11 points to flip the script and take a 12-10 lead of the own. Another ace from Amin and a kill by Cummings had the Bucs up 19-15 ahead of a Hillsborough timeout, but the Hawks responded from the break by scoring five of the next six to draw even at 20-20.  A beautiful back row attack from Petkova gave the Bucs the lead back at 21-20 and she found the floor again moments later to give FSW three cracks at the match as they led 24-21.  Back to back FSW errors allowed the Hawks a ray of hope, but Petkova finished off her 11th kill of the night off the HCC block to close out the set 25-23 and the match 3-0 for FSW.  

 

Offensively it was a pedestrian effort for the Bucs, who hit .261 on the night.  But defensively they played big as the Bucs finished with eight blocks in the three setter led by Cummings with six and De Sa with three, while the backline rarely allowed a Hawk attack to hit the floor, holding Hillsborough to just a .021 hitting mark with 41 digs, led by Ivanova who had 18 in the win. Petkova finished with a match high 11 kills for the Bucs while De Sa was right behind her with 10 and Cummings added eight. Amin was a force at the service line for the Bucs, finishing with five aces on 20 serves for FSW.  

 

The Bucs improve to 17-4 on the year with the win and advance to Friday's quarterfinal matchup against #8 Polk State at 7 PM.  Hillsborough falls to 9-13 on the year and will have to fight their way back through the elimination bracket if they are to reach their second straight National Tournament as they take on #20 Indian River Friday at 4 PM with their season on the line.