Posted: Oct 28, 2022
FORT MYERS, Fla.- It was an emotional night inside of Alico Arena on Thursday as the #1 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers closed out the 2022 regular season with their annual Sophomore Night game against the Polk State Eagles. The tears flowing pregame for seven FSW sophomores playing their final career games in front of their home crowd were turned into motivation as the first set began as the Bucs hammered the visiting Eagles 25-6 before winning tight second and third sets to finish off the sweep and head to the postseason on a five game winning streak and a 21-1 record overall.
The Bucs got off to a hot start and never looked back in the first, scoring the game's first five points and leading 10-2 in the blink of an eye. The lead continued to balloon, eventually reaching 20-4 on a kill from Barbara Koehler before Christina Pratcher and Alondra Alarcon combined on a block to put the Eagles out of their misery in the first 25-6. FSW hit an even .500 in the period with 13 kills and just 1 error while Polk managed just 3 kills while committing 5 errors in the period.
FSW got off to another good start in the second as an early kill from Julia Lawrenz gave the Bucs a 6-3 lead and an ace from Alarcon midway through the set made it 15-9 FSW. Polk battled back though, drawing all the way to within one at 21-20, but moments later, a service error by the Eagles did themselves in as the Bucs took the set 25-23 to go ahead 2-0 at the intermission.
The Bucs lost their groove during the break and Polk took advantage, jumping out to an 8-3 lead to begin the third set. FSW slowly worked their way back into things, tying the score at 10 and then going ahead 14-12 on back to back kills from Koehler and Maria Cecilia. The Bucs started pulling away late in the set, going up five on Alarcon's fourth ace of the contest before Maiana Coelho found Victoria Zibecchi to push FSW to match point and Cecilia finished it off as the Bucs took the set 25-20 to finish off the 3-0 sweep.
The Bucs hit an efficient .303 in the victory, led by Alarcon and Koehler on the outside who combined for 21 kills for the Purple and Aqua. Cecilia contributed in all phases of the game for FSW, leading the Bucs with 6 blocks while tying for the team lead with 12 digs, and also chipping in 6 kills and a .400 hitting percentage.
The Bucs close out the regular season 21-1 and wrap up their third straight Suncoast Conference Championship season with a 13-1 record. Polk drops to 10-12 overall and finishes league play 6-8.
FSW heads to the postseason as the #1 seed in the FCSAA State Tournament and will take on the winner of the Eastern Florida/Hillsborough matchup in the tournament semifinals on Friday, November 4th at 6:00 PM in Melbourne, Florida while Polk State will be the #6 seed and take on Daytona State in the opening round Friday at 9:00 AM.