WINTER HAVEN, Fla.- The #1 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers picked up their 20th win of the season on Saturday, cruising past the Polk State Eagles 3-0 on the road in Winter Haven, giving the Bucs program 20 wins in each of the past six campaigns. 

 

The Bucs jumped out in front of the Eagles early 5-1 in the first on the back of a pair of aces from Irina Makinen and a pair of big kills from Letizia Okonofua on the outside. Back to back aces for Polk midway through the set drew the Eagles back to within one, but the Bucs regained their footing and opened the lead back to 19-11 after an ace at the service line from Sarah Webb. Just when it looked like the Bucs were going to run away with it, the Eagles went on an 8-1 run including four straight kills at the end of the push to cut the FSW lead to just one once again at 20-19. Back to back errors moments later from the Bucs tied the score at 22, but Valentina Zevallos earned a kill out of the middle to put FSW back in front and they went on to take the final three points of the set to win it 25-22 and go ahead 1-0 in the match. 

 

The second set went quite differently as again FSW jumped out to a big early lead behind the right arms of Okonofua and Valentina Zevallos, but this time, the Eagles didn't offer any resistance. Polk didn't earn their first point of the set until 19-5 on a kill, getting their first four points on a Bucs attack error and three service mistakes.  FSW went on to take the set 25-7 to go ahead 2-0 into the intermission. 

 

Three early kills from Patrycja Labucka got the Bucs out to a quick 5-2 advantage in the third, but the Eagles didn't lose touch with them early as 20 points in, it was just 11-9 FSW. The Bucs went on the charge from there, rolling off 9 of the next 11 points to take a 20-11 lead and they put things in cruise control from there, trading the final 10 points in route to closing the Eagles out 25-16 to complete the sweep. 

 

The Bucs hit .329 as a team in the win as Okonofua led the way with 12 kills while Zevallos added 8. Makinen dished out 31 assists and tied Okonofua for the team lead with 4 aces. Webb led the Bucs with 12 digs on the back line while Aleksandra Lucic was in on 4 of the Bucs 9 blocks as a team in the win. 

 

FSW reaches the 20 win mark for the sixth straight season as they pick up their 16^th straight victory to improve to 20-1 overall and remain unbeaten in Citrus Conference action at 9-0. Polk drops back to 7-12 overall and finds themselves in a mess in the back end of the conference standings with a 2-7 record. 

 

The Bucs return to Fort Myers to begin a three game home stand to close out the regular season on Wednesday when they host Eastern Florida in a 6 PM start from Suncoast Arena.