Rossi Signs To Fly With Thunderbirds Next Season
After a record breaking career with the Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers, fan favorite Arianna Rossi has signed to play at the Division I level with Southern Utah University next season.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- After a record breaking career with the Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers, fan favorite Arianna Rossi has signed to play at the Division I level with Southern Utah University next season.
Rossi shattered the Bucs all-time digs record the past two seasons, anchoring one of the country's best defenses with 824 career digs. Also a weapon at the service line, Rossi broke, but then was topped by Wichita State bound teammate Barbara Koehler, for the program's all-time aces record with 70. Rossi was a two-time 1st Team All-Conference and two-time 1st Team All-Region VIII selection for the Bucs. As a freshman in 2021, she set a new school record with 456 digs while posting the third best single season mark as a sophomore with 368. Overall, she reached double digits in digs 46 times during her Buccaneer career and holds the top two single game dig records with 32 and 27 and five of the top six overall. In 56 matches, she finished her FSW career averaging 4.20 digs per set.
Rossi's career at FSW wasn't just about individual accolades however. In her two seasons in Fort Myers, the Bucs went a combined 52-6 overall and 29-1 in Suncoast Conference play. In 2022 FSW won the program's first NJCAA National Championship in just it's fourth year of competition, going 27-1, while capturing their third straight Suncoast Conference regular season Championship, and their first NJCAA Region VIII Championship. In FSW's championship run this season, the Bucs defeated six straight Top 20 ranked teams, dropping just one set during the process.
Rossi will join a rebuilding Southern Utah program who was 7-17 overall last season, but put together a respectable 6-8 mark in conference play to qualify for the WAC Tournament.
Rossi becomes the eighth NCAA Division I signee in the past two years and the 14th in the past three years for the Bucs. She is the Bucs third Division I signee, and fourth overall from FSW's 2022 squad, Julia Lawrenz (Hawaii), Barbara Koehler (Wichita State), and Maiana Coelho (Missouri Baptist).