WEST PLAINS, Mo.- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers wrapped up their first trip to the NJCAA National Tournament on Saturday, falling 3-1 to #4 Utah State Eastern to finish the tournament in 8th place. 

 

After getting off to bad starts in all three of their sets on Friday, the Bucs started much better on Saturday against Utah State Eastern, playing even with the Eagles through the first 20 points with the score tied at 10-10.  A 4-0 run for the Bucs, highlighted by a kill down the line from Kellen Valentim and a big block from Kianie Cummings and Julia De Sa, the Bucs took a 16-12 lead and didn't look back. They stretched the lead to six on a kill from Maria Petkova and finished the Eagles off on Valentim's sixth kill of the set to win 25-20 and go ahead 1-0 in the match.  

 

It was a back and forth battle again in the second early on with the score tied at 9-9 after 18 points of action. The Eagles got a big block to take a 10-9 lead and things fell apart for FSW from there as Eastern scored the next six points to push their lead to 16-9 and ran away with the set 25-16 to even the match at 1-1.  

 

The third was nearly a mirror image of the second as again the Bucs and Eagles were deadlocked at 10 to start the set before a mid-set push by Eastern put the Eagles in front 16-11. The Bucs were never close again as Eastern pushed the lead to seven at 21-14 and closed FSW out 25-17 to go ahead 2-1 in the match.  

 

In the fourth the Bucs lull came a little bit earlier.  With the score tied at 7, Eastern notched back to back blocks to get the momentum rolling in their direction and used it to go on a 6-0 run to take a 13-7 lead.  With their backs to the wall, down 17-9 later in the set, the Bucs finally showed some life, getting a kill from Yasso Amin and then a solo block from the sophomore to start them on a 9-3 run to get them back to within two at 20-18. That is as close as they would get though as three straight hitting errors cushioned the Eastern lead and the Eagles finished the Bucs off 25-20 to take the match 3-1. 

 

The Bucs again struggled offensively, hitting just .125 as a team in the match while committing 29 hitting errors, their second most in a game this season.  De Sa finished her FSW career strong, notching a 16 kill, 13 digs double-double, while Petkova and Valentim both reached double figures in kills with 12 and 10 respectively.  Fiona Baker notched 41 assists to lead the Bucs while Viktoriya Ivanova led FSW with 17 digs.  The Bucs had 12 blocks as a team in the loss, led by five from Amin and four by Cummings. 

 

FSW ends their season at 20-9 and finishes in 8th place at their first NJCAA National Tournament. USU-Eastern wraps up their season 25-7 and finishes 7th.