Posted: Nov 06, 2022
MELBOURNE, Fla.- The #1 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers made history in more than one way on Saturday in Melbourne, not only winning the program's first FCSAA State Championship in a dominating 3-0 effort, but they did it against their arch rivals, the #7 Miami Dade Sharks, making themselves just the third team in the 53 year history of the FCSAA to knock off the Sharks in a State Championship Game.
Playing in their second State Championship Game in the past three seasons, the Bucs got off to a bit of a slow start against the Sharks on Saturday, falling behind 4-0 early on before finding their footing and coming back to level things up at 8 a few moments later. The Bucs continued to hold the momentum, getting three straight kills from three different players to take a 13-9 lead midway through the period and extended it to 20-13 on a big swing by Maria Cecilia. A put away from Alondra Alarcon gave the Bucs set point and a Miami Dade hitting error closed things out as the Bucs took the first 25-18 to go ahead 1-0 in the match.
The Bucs and Sharks played even through the first 10 points of the second before a 6-1 run from FSW put the Purple and Aqua in control and up 11-6. Miami Dade made a run of their own to trim the Bucs lead back to one, but a pair of kills from Julia Lawrenz and a big block from Barbara Koehler staked FSW back to a 16-12 lead moments later. The Bucs kept their distance from there, eventually cushioning their lead to as many as seven before finishing the Sharks off 25-19 to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
Miami Dade continued to give it their best effort, but the Bucs were just too much. FSW took a 9-5 lead to begin the third and pushed their lead to five midway through the set at 14-9 after Lawrenz and Cecilia combined on a monster stuff as the Bucs started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Back to back kills from Collier and a rocket down the line from Cecilia made it 22-13 Bucs and Lawrenz put a slide away on the right side for the clincher as the Bucs took the set 25-17 to begin the celebration.
The Bucs hit .282 in the win while holding the Nation's top statistical offense in Miami Dade to just a .104 hitting mark. Cecilia shined in the victory, pounding home a match high 15 kills in the three setter while also getting in on 6 blocks to lead all players. Alarcon finished second on the team with 9 kills while Lawrenz and Collier had 7 each in the middle while also both finishing with 5 blocks. Roberta Purashaj ran the Bucs offense to near perfection, dishing out 39 assists while connecting with her hitters at a .470 rate. Koehler was again huge at the service line for FSW with 4 aces, giving her 11 in the Bucs two game State Tournament run, while also pulling up 13 digs in the win. Arianna Rossi once again anchored the back row, leading the way with 14 digs for the Buccaneers.
At the conclusion of the tournament Koehler, Collier, and Cecilia were named to the All-Tournament Team while Lawrenz was named the MVP and FSW Head Coach Thais Baziquetto-Allen was named the FCSAA Coach of the Year.
It is the first FCSAA State Championship for the Bucs program still in it's infancy, playing in just their fourth season in 2022. With the win the Bucs punch their third straight ticket to the NJCAA National Tournament where they finished 8th and 5th in their first two trips.
The Bucs will take an eight game winning streak and a 23-1 record into the National Tournament while Miami Dade will have a shot at redemption on Sunday when they take on Spartanburg Methodist in the South Atlantic District B Championship with a trip to the National Tournament on the line.
FSW will now begin preparations for the NJCAA National Tournament in West Plains, Missouri with the opening day of games coming on November 17th in the Show Me State. The Bucs, along with the rest of the participants will learn their draw for the event on Thursday at 1 PM during the National Tournament Selection Show on the NJCAA Network.