Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern recovered from last week's three-set loss to Saint Leo with a three-set sweep over Nova Southeastern (25-10, 25-19, 25-15) in Sunshine State action at the George Jenkins Field House.
The win improves the Moccasins' record to 18-8 on the season, 7-3 in the conference and tied for second with Saint Leo, while the visiting Sharks fell to 5-15 and 1-8 in the SSC on the year.
Friday night's victory featured a balanced Moccasin offense, hitting an efficient .366 for the match and having six players hit above .300. Along with hitting .366 against the Sharks, the Moccasins also committed just 10 attack errors and recorded 38 digs and five team blocks. The Moccasin defense was equally dominant, holding the Sharks to just 23 kills and an attack percentage of .048.
Senior middle blocker Dominique Hale (Kingman, Ariz.) and junior outside hitter Kate Stromberg (Lexington, Ky.) each leading the team with eight kills, while sophomore setter Kendall Marotti (LaBelle, Fla.) led with 32 assists, and junior libero Catherine Brusie (North Branch, Mich.) led on defense with 11 digs. Stromberg also contributed with three of Florida Southern's five service aces in the win.
The Moccasins came out firing in the first set, as they jumped out to an 11-4 lead before Nova Southeastern called a timeout. The Mocs scored the first three points of the set and wouldn't look back as they led by as many as 15 points towards the end of the set. Florida Southern hit .444 in the first set, scoring nine kills with only one attack error.
The second set started out rough for FSC, falling behind by as many as seven points after a Moccasin timeout with the score at 10-3 in favor of Nova Southeastern, before scoring seven straight points to retake the lead for good in the second set after sophomore outside hitter Brindl Langley (Camas, Wash.) recorded her first kill of the set. The Moccasins won the second set 25-19, hitting only .238 as a team with 17 kills and seven errors.
The third set belonged to Florida Southern from the beginning, as they opened up with a 10-3 lead after scoring four straight points. FSC continued to attack, recording 14 kills and hitting .545 in the set, while only allowing seven kills and a .042 attack percentage from Nova Southeastern.
NSU was led by Sydney Cook with nine kills and seven digs, while Katie Pyles added 19 assists and eight digs in the loss.
The Mocs will celebrate Senior Day on Saturday when they host Lynn at 4 p.m. The last time these two teams squared off was in Boca Raton, where Florida Southern posted a four-set victory in late September.
