November 23, 2025
Bucs Come Up Just Short in National Championship Game
The third time wasn't a charm, but the fourth time was for the Miami Dade Sharks on Saturday as the Sharks ended a three year National Championship run for the Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers by sweeping the Bucs in the 2025 Championship Game in Clarksville, Tennessee.
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn.- The third time wasn't a charm, but the fourth time was for the Miami Dade Sharks on Saturday as the Sharks ended a three year National Championship run for the Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers by sweeping the Bucs in the 2025 Championship Game in Clarksville, Tennessee.
The Bucs got off to a good start under the bright lights, jumping out to a 7-4 advantage early in the first before Miami Dade came back to tie the game up at 12 at the midway point of the period. Back to back Bucs errors allowed the Sharks to take the lead and Miami Dade scored five of the final six points of the set to take it 25-20 and go ahead 1-0 in the match. The Bucs registered 14 kills in the set, but were hampered with seven errors to hit just .189 to Miami Dade's .323 in the first.
The second set was nearly identical to the first, as again FSW got out to a good start before the Sharks came back to level the score up at 5-5 at the 10 point mark of the set. Miami Dade scored four straight to take the lead before three straight by the Bucs got FSW back to within three at 14-13. It was 18-18 moments later when the Bucs went cold at exactly the wrong time. FSW was outscored 7-2 down the stretch as Miami Dade finished them off to win it 25-20 and take a two lead in the match.
The third couldn't have started any worse for the Bucs as Miami Dade raced out to a 10-2 lead , forcing FSW to call both timeouts before the set was a dozen points old. The Bucs fought back, going on a 5-1 run on the right arm of Sara Gamboa to inch closer before scoring four straight including a kill and block from Kiley Petras to draw back to within two at 14-12. The momentum was short lived though as the Sharks got a sideout and dialed up back to back aces behind that to pad their lead back to 18-12. The Bucs couldn't sustain any runs from there on as FSW and Miami Dade traded points to 22-16 before the Sharks put the Bucs out of their misery with a kill from setter Elonora Gicheva to in the third 25-19 to finish off a 3-0 sweep.
The Bucs got 12 kills from Letizia Okonofua and 11 from Sara Gamboa in the loss while Irina Makinen finished with 32 assists and Sarah Webb picked up 13 digs to lead the back row.
At tournament's end, Makinen and Gamboa were both named to the All-Tournament Team.
The Bucs see their run atop the NJCAA ladder come to a close as Miami Dade wins their first National Championship since 2017 after the Bucs defeated them in each of the last three title games.
FSW finishes the season as National Runners-Up with a 27-4 record while Miami Dade ends the season 29-2.
