November 21, 2025
Bucs Come From Behind to Reach National Championship Game
With their backs to the wall, down 2-1 Friday night in the NJCAA National Tournament Semifinals, the #3 Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers kept on swinging, coming from behind to defeat the #2 Weatherford Coyotes 3-2 to punch their ticket to their fourth consecutive NJCAA National Championship Game appearance where they will square off against none other than their arch rivals, the #1 Miami Dade Sharks for the fourth year in a row with the Championship on the line Saturday.
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn.- With their backs to the wall, down 2-1 Friday night in the NJCAA National Tournament Semifinals, the #3 Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers kept on swinging, coming from behind to defeat the #2 Weatherford Coyotes 3-2 to punch their ticket to their fourth consecutive NJCAA National Championship Game appearance where they will square off against none other than their arch rivals, the #1 Miami Dade Sharks for the fourth year in a row with the Championship on the line Saturday.
Coming off of a hard fought five set victory on Thursday night in the quarterfinals, the Bucs struggled to find any traction early on on Friday, falling behind Weatherford 8-5 and playing catch up the rest of the way. A mid set run by the Coyotes ballooned their lead to 17-9 and was enough to withstand a late push by the Bucs to make things interesting, as Weatherford hung on to take the first 25-20 to take the first lead of the night 1-0. The Bucs were good enough offensively in the period, hitting .303 with 13 kills, but they couldn't slow down the 'Yotes who finished off 15 kills and hit .382 as a group in the set.
The Bucs tweaked their lineup to begin the second set and it paid off early on as Patrycja Labucka came in off the bench and picked up three kills and a block in the first 15 points to stake FSW out to an early 9-6 lead. Weatherford answered with a 6-2 run to take their first lead of the set at 12-11, but then four straight Coyote attack errors allowed the Bucs to coast back in front 15-12 ahead of a timeout. An ace from Magi Milicevic bumped the Bucs lead to four and they remained at arm's length from the Coyotes until back to back blocks for Weatherford drew them to within one at 22-21. A big service error by the Coyotes gave the Bucs the ball back and they took advantage, getting a kill from Letizia Okonofua to push it to set point before Sarah Webb finished things off with an ace to give the Bucs the set 25-22 and even the match at a set a piece. After an offensive masterpiece in the first by the two teams, the second was quite the opposite as the Bucs and Coyotes combined for 19 kills and 19 errors in the period with FSW hitting .028 as a team and Weatherford hitting negative at -.025.
The break allowed the Coyotes to regroup and they jumped out to a 6-3 lead to begin the crucial third set. Aleksandra Lucic did her best to get the Bucs back in it, picking up a kill and then a pair of blocks, incuding one solo stuff to draw them back to even at 9-9. The Bucs went cold through the middle of the set which allowed the Coyotes to retake a 15-12 lead before three straight from FSW on kills from Sara Gamboa, Labucka, and Lucic leveled things back up at 15. It looked like it was going to be another photo finish as the Bucs held a one point lead at 18-17, but things went South from there for the Purple and Aqua as Weatherford tied the score with a kill and then rattled off eight of the final nine points of the set to stun FSW 25-19 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
With their backs to the wall, the Bucs turned to their veterans and they responded as Labucka earned a pair of kills and Milicevic added three more to push FSW out to a 7-4 lead to begin set number four. A block by Lucic and Irina Makinen made it 10-5 Bucs and moments later Lucic combined with Gamboa for a stuff to stretch the lead to seven at 13-6 in favor of FSW. Weatherford suddenly had no answer for the Bucs as two more kills from Milicevic made it 21-12 and a late push by the Coyotes was too little, too late as Gamboa rifled one to the floor on the Bucs sixth set point attempt to win it 25-21 and send the game to a deciding fifth set.
As expected with a trip to the National Championship Game on the line, it was a back and forth battle in the fifth with the Bucs and Coyotes splitting the first 10 points to a 5-5 deadlock. Gamboa took over from there for FSW, picking up kills on five straight points to put the Bucs in front 10-5 before her seventh kill of the set made it 13-7 FSW. The Bucs won a long rally with a kill from Labucka to give them a handful of shots at the match and on their third try Valentina Zevallos found the floor with a well placed tip to seal it as FSW finished off their comeback with a 15-10 win in the fifth to take the match 3-2.
Gamboa did the majority of her work late to finish with 18 kills to lead the way for FSW while Zevallos tied her career high with 10 kills and Milicevic added 9 without an error on the outside. Makinen posted her second straight 50+ assist match with 54 and also added 14 digs for a double-double while Lucic controlled the net with a match high 8 blocks to go along with her 9 kills in the victory. Webb anchored the back line once again with a career high tying 28 digs and in the process became the Bucs single season record holder with 460 digs on the year.
The Bucs went the distance in back to back matches for the first time in program history on Thursday and Friday, improving to 27-3 on the year with the win. Weatherford sees their record fall to 34-3 with all three losses on the year coming to FSW and Miami Dade.
The Bucs return to the National Championship Game for the fourth straight year with the victory where they will once again square off with their arch nemeses, the Miami Dade Sharks for all the marbles on Saturday. The Bucs and Sharks are set for an 8 PM (ET) first serve in Clarksville with the match airing exclusively on ESPN+.
