September 13, 2025
Bucs Fly Past Hawks In Citrus Opener
The #2 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers jumped out to an early lead and never looked back Saturday afternoon in their Citrus Conference opener against the Hillsborough Hawks, sweeping their old conference rivals 3-0 to improve to 12-1 on the year.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #2 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers jumped out to an early lead and never looked back Saturday afternoon in their Citrus Conference opener against the Hillsborough Hawks, sweeping their old conference rivals 3-0 to improve to 12-1 on the year.
It was all FSW from the jump as the Bucs raced out to a 7-2 lead in the first and quickly parlayed that into a 12-3 advantage midway through the set after back to back kills from Sara Gamboa and Magi Milicevic. The Bucs continued to push, making it 17-5 before eventually putting the Hawks out of their misery at 25-13 to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
It was a repeat in the second as Irina Makinen connected with Giovanna Rocha on the right side for a pair of early kills to get the Bucs out to a 6-2 lead before five straight from FSW midway through the set opened their lead up to 14-5. A crosscourt rocket from Gamboa made it 20-9 FSW and after a service error, the Bucs rolled off the final five points of the set to take it 25-10 and go up 2-0 into the intermission.
For the third straight set, the Bucs raced out to a big early lead, this time scoring seven of the first eight points of the period including back to back aces from Gamboa to give them a 7-1 lead to get things going. Two more aces from Brookelyn Savoya during a 5-0 run midway through the set made it 13-5 Bucs. FSW didn't relent as Aleksandra Lucic got in on the ace party with two of her own while Bethyna Kayser and Letizia Okonofua came in off the bench and got kills to make it 21-9 Bucs and they would go on to win the third 25-13 to wrap up the sweep 3-0.
The stat sheet was as uneven as the line score as FSW finished off 44 kills at a .341 clip in the contest while Hillsborough managed just 10 and hit -.068 on the afternoon. Rocha and Gamboa each had 12 kills and hit over .400 while Makinen dished out 28 assists for the Purple and Aqua. The Bucs dominated the service line where they dialed up 15 total aces including 6 from Lucic and 3 from Savoya.
The Bucs win their eighth straight to improve to 12-1 on the year while remaining perfect in conference openers at 7-0 all-time. Hillsborough drops back to .500 at 6-6 overall while falling in their final Citrus Conference opener.
The Bucs will hit the road for the first time in conference action on Wednesday when they make the trip up I-75 to take on Santa Fe in Gainesville in a 6 PM first serve.
