November 9, 2025
TICKET PUNCHED! Bucs Headed Back to Clarksville to Defend Their Crown
The Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers are headed back to the NJCAA National Tournament to defend their crown after sweeping USC Sumter 3-0 in the Atlantic District Championships Sunday in Suncoast Credit Union Arena.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers are headed back to the NJCAA National Tournament to defend their crown after sweeping USC Sumter 3-0 in the Atlantic District Championships Sunday in Suncoast Credit Union Arena.
For the second straight season, it was the Bucs and the Fire Ants in the District Title Game with a ticket to the National Tournament on the line and also for the second straight season it was a dominating performance for FSW.
Sara Gamboa started the match with a big swing from the outside and then went back to the service line and ripped back to back aces to get the Bucs out to an early lead. A kill from Magi Milicevic got the Bucs to 10 first and back to back stuff blocks from Irina Makinen and Aleksandra Lucic stretched the FSW lead to 10 at 15-5. After stepping back to the service line, Lucic dialed up four straight aces to extend the Bucs lead to 21-6 and Giovanna Rocha got a kill on the right side to put the first to bed 25-9. The Bucs finished the first with seven aces, seven blocks, and eight kills to earn 22 of their 25 points scored in the period.
The Bucs carried their momentum over into the second, scoring the first four points including a big kill on an overpass from Valentina Zevallos to give FSW a quick 4-0 lead. Moments later with Sarah Webb at the service line, the Bucs rolled off eight points in a row including a pair of aces from the libero to open up a double digit lead at 13-3. The Bucs continued to batter the Fire Ants in the serve/receive game as Milicevic picked up an ace to make it a 19-5 game. With the set in their grasp, the Bucs went back to Milicevic on the outside, and she finished off the final three points of the period with kills to give FSW the set 25-11 to go ahead 2-0 into the intermission.
With their season on the line, the Fire Ants came out stinging in the third, scoring the first four points to take an early 4-0 lead and continued to lead it 7-4 moments later. Back to back miscues by Sumter got the Bucs back to within one and they scored the next eight in a row to turn a three point deficit to a 14-7 lead midway through the set. A pair of kills from Letizia Okonofua put FSW up 20-12 and Patrycja Labucka controlled the match from there with four kills in the final five points to finish off a 25-15 win for the Bucs to complete the sweep.
The Bucs put up big numbers across the board, hitting .358 as a team while recording 14 aces and 10 blocks as a team. Milicevic finished with 8 kills to lead the way while Labucka had 7 kills on 9 swings in her only set played to hit a cool .778 on the right side. Lucic filled up the stat sheet with 5 kills, 4 aces, and a team high 7 blocks while Makinen dished out 34 assists and was also in on 4 blocks.
FSW improves to 24-3 on the year while USC Sumter sees their best season in program history come to an end at 21-8.
The win sends FSW to their sixth straight NJCAA National Tournament where they will begin their run for their fourth straight National Championship on November 19th in Clarksville, Tennessee.