September 14, 2024
Bucs Thump #19 Eastern, 10-0 For Third Straight Year
The #1 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers dismantled the visiting #19 Eastern Florida State Titans Saturday afternoon at Suncoast Arena in the Citrus Conference home opener, scoring 16 of the final 17 points of the first set for a 25-9 win before breezing to 25-12 and 25-10 wins in the second and third to finish off the sweep and improve to 10-0 on the year for the third straight season.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #1 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers dismantled the visiting #19 Eastern Florida State Titans Saturday afternoon at Suncoast Arena in the Citrus Conference home opener, scoring 16 of the final 17 points of the first set for a 25-9 win before breezing to 25-12 and 25-10 wins in the second and third to finish off the sweep and improve to 10-0 on the year for the third straight season.
The first set was close early on in the Top 20 battle between the Bucs and Titans. FSW and Eastern were deadlocked at 6 to get things going before three straight Bucs points gave them a 9-6 advantage. Eastern got two back to make it a 9-8 game when things went south for the Titans. A service error by Eastern gave FSW the ball back and they wouldn't give it up for a while; a long while. Camilla Brandalise rolled off 13 straight points at the service line including four aces in a row at one point to turn a one point game into a 23-8 FSW lead in the blink of an eye. The teams traded service errors to set point when Julija Grubisic Cabo put the Titans out of their misery with an ace off the tape to give the Bucs the set 25-9 to go up 1-0 in the match.
The second followed a similar script early on as Eastern regained it's footing with the scoreboard reset and found themselves down just one at 6-5 at the 11 point mark of the set. A kill on the slide from Nina Boledovicova and a big block from Brandalise and Abby Toeniskoetter pushed the Bucs in front 11-6 ahead of a Titan timeout and moments later Boledovicova showed off her versatility by putting one on a tee for Giovanna Rocha who terminated to make it 16-9 Bucs as they looked to take a 2-0 lead. With the score 17-11 in favor of FSW three points later, the Bucs went on another late set run, this time with Sara Gasparini at the line as she rolled off six straight to take FSW to set point and the period ended on an overpass kill from libero Anna Marzella to give the Bucs the set 25-12 to go up 2-0 in the match.
For the third straight set, FSW and Eastern played pretty much even to begin the set before the Bucs stepped on the gas 10 points in to gain a 13-6 advantage on a pair of kills from Julija Grubisic Cabo. Brandalise's sixth ace of the match made it 17-8 FSW before Rocha and Nele Broszat combined on a stuff to give the Bucs a 10 point cushion on the Titans. A pair of Titan errors put the Bucs on the brink before Broszat dropped in not one, but two aces to close things out as FSW took the third 25-10 to complete the 3-0 sweep.
The final stat lines were as lopsided as the scoreboard as FSW hit a crisp .343 as a team while Eastern Florida hit -.112 with 24 errors and just 15 kills in the match. Grubisic Cabo led the Bucs with 9 kills while Rocha and Gasparini combined for 11 without an error on the pins. Brandalise flirted with a triple-double, going for 13 assists, 8 digs, and 6 aces, just one off the Bucs program record in a three set match.
FSW moves to 10-0 overall and 2-0 in Citrus Conference play with the win, the third consecutive season that the Bucs have started the season 10-0. Eastern Florida falls to 9-6 overall and 0-2 in league action in the defeat.
The Bucs win sets up a monumental regular season battle in Miami on Tuesday as #1 FSW and #2 Miami Dade collide in a battle of not only the last two undefeateds on the NJCAA Division I landscape, but also a rematch of each of the last two NJCAA National Championship Games.