WEST PLAINS, Mo.- The #6 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers were looking for revenge Friday at the NJCAA National Tournament as they took on the #2 Odessa Wranglers, who handed the Bucs a five set loss earlier this season.  Every set played out nearly identically as Odessa got out to an early lead before FSW came back to tie things up midway through, but at the end, the Wranglers pulled off a 3-0 sweep in three close sets to advance to Saturday's 5th place matchup while the Bucs fell to the 7th place match where they will try to finish their 2020-2021 season with a win Saturday morning against Utah State-Eastern.

 

The Bucs got off to a forgettable start in the first, falling behind 8-2 just 10 points into the contest.  An ace from Yasso Amin and another big serve from the sophomore drew FSW back to within four midway through at 13-9, but back to back errors from the Bucs allowed the Wranglers to push it back to six at 15-9.  The Bucs gave it one more big run late and a solo block from Fiona Baker got them to within three at 23-20, but they were only able to split the final four points as the Wranglers held on to take the first 25-22.  

 

The second followed nearly the same script with Odessa again getting out to an 8-3 lead before a mid set push by FSW got them level at 9-9.  The Bucs offense struggled to put the ball away from there and the Wranglers took advantage to retake a lead and stretch it out to four at 19-15.  Again, FSW showed some fight, drawing back to within three late in the set, but that is as close as they would get as they fell for the second straight set, 25-22 to fall in a 2-0 hole in the match.  

 

FSW again dug themselves an early hole in the third, falling behind 7-3 to begin the set.  But once again, they dug their heels in and stormed back, evening the score at 8 on a kill from Maria Petkova.  The Bucs rode the momentum, taking a 12-10 lead on another ace from Amin and then moving in front 13-10 on a Wrangler hitting error at the midway point of the set. But their lead was short lived as Odessa came back to tie the score at 17 before going on a 3-1 run to take a 20-18 lead of their own. The Bucs never recovered as Odessa finished the set off 25-21 to wrap up a 3-0 sweep to punch their ticket to the 5th place game. 

 

The Bucs hit under .200 as a team for the second straight game, the first time this season that they have been held under that mark in back to back contests.  Kianie Cummings and Maria Petkova led the Bucs with 10 kills each while Amin had nine.  Fiona Baker finished with 30 assists for the Bucs while also picking up nine digs and a pair of blocks while Viktoriya Ivanova led FSW with 17 digs.  

 

The Bucs drop back to back matches for the first time this season, falling to 20-8 on the year while Odessa improves to 26-3. 

 

FSW will try to win their season finale on Saturday as they take on their third straight top five ranked opponent in #4 Utah State-Eastern at 11:30 (CT) in the 7th place match at the tournament.