March 7, 2021
Sophs Shine in Final Home Game
Emotions were high pregame as the Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers recognized the eight players from their first two-year sophomore class in program history. Once the lights turned on though, the sophs turned their game faces on as Julia De Sa led the Bucs with 12 kills while Yasso Amin had 11 kills and 9 blocks and Viktoriya Ivanova led FSW with 12 digs to lead the Bucs to a 3-0 win over visiting Palm Beach State to move to 15-3 on the year.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- Emotions were high pregame as the Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers recognized the eight players from their first two-year sophomore class in program history. Once the lights turned on though, the sophs turned their game faces on as Julia De Sa led the Bucs with 12 kills while Yasso Amin had 11 kills and 9 blocks and Viktoriya Ivanova led FSW with 12 digs to lead the Bucs to a 3-0 win over visiting Palm Beach State to move to 15-3 on the year.
It wasn't exactly a picture perfect start for the 6th ranked Bucs Saturday afternoon as they came out of the gates slow, falling behind 6-2 in the first after a rash of early errors. Down 8-4 moments later, the Bucs flipped the switch on, scoring five straight to erase the Panther lead and take a 9-8 lead of their own. They didn't stop there, eventually pushing their run to 12-1 on three kills in four points from Julia De Sa to take control of the set at 16-9. The Bucs dominated the net in the first set, getting blocks from Kellen Valentim and Yasso Amin and then another from Kianie Cummings and Maria Petkova to give them set point where Cummings finished off the Panthers with a kill on the slide to give the Bucs the first 25-12 and a 1-0 lead in the match.
The second was close again early on as the Bucs and Panthers were tied at 7 after 14 points of action. An ace from Fiona Baker pushed the Bucs in front and they never relinquished the lead again. A bullet from Amin in the middle followed by a solo block from the sophomore pushed the FSW lead to 14-9 and back to back errors from the Panthers later in the set had the Bucs in front 21-14. Another FSW block, this one from Amin and Amanda Mendes gave the Bucs set point and they closed things out on their first try to take the set 25-17 to go up 2-0 in the match.
It was all Palm Beach early in the third as the Panthers jumped out to a 10-6 lead to begin the set. The Panthers remained up four moments later when the Bucs went on an 8-0 run with Viktoriya Ivanova at the service line highlighted by three straight blocks to flip the script and take a four point lead of the own at 16-12. The Bucs pushed their lead to six late in the set on a block from Kianie Cummings and Riley Oglevie and Oglevie put the match to bed with a kill from the right side to give FSW a 25-20 win in the third to finish off the 3-0 sweep.
FSW hit .300 in the match while recording 13 blocks as a team, leading to a -.092 hitting mark for the Panthers on the afternoon. De Sa finished with a match high 12 kills while Amin had 11 kills on 16 swings to hit .688 while also recording a career high 9 blocks in the match. Baker dished out assists on 30 of FSW's 33 kills on the afternoon while Ivanova led the back row with 12 digs. Eight different Bucs were in on blocks in the win, led by Amin's 9 and Cummings' 4.
The Bucs pick up their 15th win of the year with the victory, improving to 15-3. Palm Beach falls to 4-13.
FSW closes out their Suncoast Conference schedule on Tuesday when they travel to Tampa to take on Hillsborough in a 6 PM first serve.