September 24, 2025
Offensive Firepower Leads #1 FSW Over Polk
The #1 Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers flexed their muscles Wednesday night in front of a spirited home crowd at Suncoast Credit Union Arena, hitting .507 as a team in a 3-0 sweep of the visiting Polk State Eagles in Citrus Conference action.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #1 Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers flexed their muscles Wednesday night in front of a spirited home crowd at Suncoast Credit Union Arena, hitting .507 as a team in a 3-0 sweep of the visiting Polk State Eagles in Citrus Conference action.
The first three points of the match were a preview of what was to come on this night as Sara Gamboa smashed a pair of kills to the ground and Irina Makinen dialed up an ace to quickly push FSW out to a 3-0 lead in the first. The Bucs kept the pressure up, making it 9-2 on a kill from Magi Milicevic and going in front 20-5 as Aleksandra Lucic found the floor with a swing. The Bucs never let up, scoring the final four points of the set to finish off a 25-6 first set win to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
It was all FSW again early in the second as the Bucs scored 7 of the first 8 points of the period to get out to a 7-1 advantage. Sarah Webb snuck an ace in to make it 11-3 Bucs and a huge block from Valentina Zevallos and Giovanna Rocha extended the lead to 17-8 later in the period. Polk made things respectable late, but it was still all Purple and Aqua as FSW closed it out 25-13 to go ahead 2-0 into the intermission.
A pair of aces from Makinen and a kill from Patrycja Labucka raced FSW out to a 5-0 lead in the third, but Polk put together their best stretch of the night, outscoring the Bucs 9-6 over the next 15 points to draw back to within just two at 11-9. The Bucs would lock it back in from there though, scoring 8 of the next 9 points to push out in front 19-10 and they went on to take the third 25-13 to complete the sweep of the Eagles.
The FSW offense was dialed in, finishing off 40 kills at a clip of .507 on the evening. Gamboa and Milicevic combined for 22 kills and just 2 errors on the night while Makinen led the Bucs with 29 assists and 4 aces.
The Bucs run their winning streak to 10, nine in a row coming via sweep, to improve to 14-1 overall and 3-0 in Citrus Conference play. Polk falls to 5-8 overall and 0-3 in league play.
Things dial up a notch for FSW over the next 10 days as they play three straight Top 20 ranked opponents on the road. That stretch begins on Saturday when they make the trip to Melbourne to take on #16 Eastern Florida in a 2 PM start from the Space Coast.
