TAMPA, Fla.- For the second straight season, the Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers are the Suncoast Conference Champions.  The #1 ranked Bucs officially retained their crown on Thursday, sweeping #17 Hillsborough to remain unbeaten at 14-0 in conference play to sew up the title with two games to go.  The bookends were pretty for FSW on Thursday as they hammered down 17 kills in a 25-21 first set win and hit .500 with 14 kills in the third to finish the sweep off with a 25-15 victory.  

 

Early on it was a back and forth battle between the Bucs and Hawks as the two teams found themselves tied at 9-9 after 18 points of action. A 7-2 run from FSW from there, highlighted by a big block from Julia Lawrenz and Maria Cecilia and then a pair of kills from Cecilia, opened up a 16-11 lead for the Bucs and they never looked back.  Hillsborough made a late push to get back to within one, but couldn't find the equalizer as the Bucs scored six of the last eight points to take the set 25-21 and go up 1-0 in the match.  The Bucs had 17 kills in the set, led by five from Maria Petkova and four from Barbara Koehler. 

 

The Bucs looked liked they were going to put things in cruise control in the second as a mid set run had them out in front of Hillsborough 15-10.  They stretched their lead to six at 19-13 on a Fiona Baker to Elissa Alcantara hookup and had a chance to put the Hawks away with an attack on the outside, but the attack went long and started Hillsborough on an 8-1 run to not only erase the FSW lead, but to give the Hawks a 21-20 lead of their own. Yunju Lee found Cecilia for a kill to even things back up for the Bucs and the two teams dance to 23-23.  An attack into the net by the Hawks gave the Bucs their first crack at set point and a huge block on the outside from Alcantara and Deborah Ribeiro sealed it for the Purple and Aqua as they took the set 25-23 to go ahead 2-0 in the match.  

 

After taking the wind out of the Hawks sails in the second, the Bucs put it on Hillsborough in the third.  FSW started the period up 8-2 and quickly pushed their lead to double digits at 14-4 midway through. They remained up 10 later in the set as Koehler picked up a solo block on the Hawks setter before putting Hillsborough away on a kill from sophomore captain Maria Petkova to take the set 25-15, the match 3-0, and to seal up their second straight Suncoast Conference title. 

 

The Bucs hit an efficient .319 in the win, getting 10 kills each from Petkova and Koehler and 5 kills on 5 swings from Ribeiro in the middle.  Lee and Baker split 33 assists in the win while Baker's 3 aces led a 9 ace attack for the Bucs. Arianna Rossi dug up a match high 14 balls for FSW while Alcantara was in on 5 of the Bucs 8 blocks as a team in the victory. 

 

The win is the 16th straight for the Bucs who push their season record to 19-2 overall while clinching their second straight Suncoast Conference Championship with a 14-0 record and two games to go.  Hillsborough falls to 10-6 overall and 7-6 in league action with the loss. Despite dropping their fourth straight, the Hawks still got a bit of good news Thursday as by virtue of Indian River's win over Eastern Florida, the Hawks clinched their spot in the FCSAA State Tournament in early November in Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers.  

 

The Bucs will have a few days to celebrate their championship as they will be idle until Tuesday when they play their regular season home finale in Suncoast Arena, hosting Polk State on Sophomore Night in the Arena at 6 PM.  The Bucs eight sophomores will be honored in a pregame ceremony with their match against the Eagles to follow.