JACKSONVILLE, Fla.- The #6 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers pushed the #1 Miami Dade Sharks to the wire Saturday afternoon in the FCSAA State Tournament Semifinals, doing something no other team has done all season, take two sets from the Sharks, but in the end, Miami Dade remained undefeated, nipping the Bucs 15-12 in the fifth set to win 3-2.  The Bucs will now play in a second semifinal on Sunday morning against #8 Polk State with the winner taking on the Sharks in the Championship game at 2 PM.  

 

Miami Dade came out firing on all cylinders, jumping on the Bucs 14-6 to start the first set. FSW found its footing from there, going on a 5-1 run to trim the Sharks lead to just four at 15-11.  Miami Dade stepped on the gas once more, opening up their lead before finishing the Bucs off 25-16 to take a 1-0 lead in the match. 

 

The second followed an opposite script. It was FSW getting out to a big early lead, going up 12-6 on back to back kills from Kianie Cummings and stretching it to 20-11 on a block by Cummings and Maria Petkova to put the Bucs in control.  The Sharks never threatened from there as FSW close the set with a kill from Kellen Valentim to win 25-17 and even the match at 1-1.  

 

The third was a battle the whole way as the two teams found themselves tied at 5 early on, 11 midway through, and 18 later in the set.  An ace from Viktoriya Ivanova gave the Bucs the lead and they never looked back, pushing it to set point on a kill from Julia De Sa and getting another kill from the sophomore to seal it 25-21 to put FSW up 2-1 in the match. 

 

It looked like the fourth was going to follow the same path as the third as FSW and Miami Dade were knotted at 6 after 12 points of action.  But that's when the Sharks pulled out their secret weapon Solaida Pierra to serve and Miami Dade's sparingly used freshman rolled off 10 straight points to give the Sharks a 16-6 lead.  After FSW finally got a sideout, back to back Shark blocks got Miami Dade rolling again and the Bucs never threatened again as the Sharks closed the set out 25-14 to force a deciding fifth set.  

 

The Sharks carried their momentum from the fourth right into the fifth, scoring the first six points of the set to force an FSW timeout. Slowly the Bucs battled back into the set, cutting the Miami Dade lead to just three at 10-7 on an out of system kill from De Sa from Giovanna Bello. The Bucs had a chance to get to within two twice later in the set, but a service error and an attack wide thwarted those chances and kept the Sharks out of reach for FSW.  The Bucs forced Miami Dade to work for match point, fighting off the first two chances for the Sharks, but in the end, the Nation's top team was just a little bit too much for the new kids on the block as they took the set 15-12 and the match 3-2. 

 

FSW hit just .177 in the match, hampered by 24 hitting errors in the loss. De Sa led FSW with 14 kills on the afternoon while Valentim had 12 and Petkova had 10 to go along with a team best 18 digs for a double-double. The Bucs did outblock the Sharks 13-7 in the contest, getting seven stuffs from Cummings and six from Amin in the loss. 

 

The Bucs fall to 18-5 on the year with the defeat while Miami Dade wins its first five setter of the season to improve to a perfect 21-0.  

 

FSW will play in another semifinal match on Sunday at 11 AM against #8 Polk State with the winner taking on Miami Dade in the title game at 2 PM.