Box Score MIAMI SHORES - Florida Southern put the brakes on its five-match losing streak here Friday evening as the Moccasins hit an impressive .341 en route to posting a four-set victory (25-16, 25-14, 22-25, 25-16) over Barry in Sunshine State Conference action at the Health and Sports Center on the Barry campus.
With the victory, FSC recorded its 32nd 20 win season in program history as the Mocs improve to 20-13 overall on the season and moves into a three-way tie for third in the SSC with a 9-6 mark, while Barry falls to 11-16 overall and 4-11 in the SSC. In addition, FSC has now won 20 or more matches for the second consecutive season and they recorded 22 wins a season ago.
FSC, who is fifth in this week's latest NCAA Division II South Regional rankings, hit over .300 in three of the four set and recorded 56 kills and had just 10 attack errors on 135 attack attempts. In addition, five players hit over .275 in the match, including two hitting over .500 on the night.
Leading the way for the Mocs offense was freshman outside hitter Brindl Langley (Camas, Wash.) as she had 13 kills, including six in the fourth set and added 12 digs for her 10th double-double and hit .379, while junior outside hitter Kate Stromberg (Lexington, Ky.) had 11 kills and 12 digs for her 12th double-doubles and sophomore setter Kendall Marotti (LaBelle, Fla.) fell one kill short a triple-double as she finished the night with nine kills, 44 assists and digs for her team-leading 19th double-double. Marotti also hit a team-best .600 on the night.
Junior right side hitter Gabby Fernandez (Tampa, Fla.) added nine kills, 16 digs, four blocks and hit .500 and two Mocs recorded seven kills in the win as sophomore middle blocker Kayshia Brady (Welaka, Fla.) had seven kills, five blocks, including a team-best three solo blocks and hit .278 and senior middle blocker Dominique Hale (Kingman, Ariz.), who also added seven kills and two blocks in the win.
In the first set, the Mocs jumped out to a 9-6 lead, before Barry scored two straight points to pull within 9-8. The Mocs, though, would push its lead back out to 12-9, before the Bucs used a 5-2 run to tie the set at 14-all. Back-to-back kills from Stromberg gave the Mocs a 16-14 lead and that lead grew 21-15 following an ace by Fernandez. BU answered with a kill by Laine Cielena to pull within 21-16, before the Mocs closed the set by scoring the final four points, including Marotti capping the set by back-to-back kills, to post a 25-16 win. Marotti finished with four kills in the set. In the first set, FSC hit .452 as they had 14 kills and recorded no errors in 31 attacks, while BU hit .219.
Barry jumped out to a 6-4 lead in the second set, until the Mocs answered with a 3-1 run to tie the set at 7-all following a solo block by Fernandez. After the team's traded points, the Mocs used a 6-1 run to take a 15-9 lead. The run was capped by back-to-back kills from Langley. The Bucs would score two straight points to drop FSC's lead to 15-11 before the Mocs would close the set by scoing 10 of the final 14 points to post 25-14 win and take a 2-0 lead in the set. FSC hit .303 in the set and recorded 15 kills and held BU to an .032 hitting percentage.
In the third set, neither team was able to get much of an advantage until using a 6-3 run to turn a 9-all tie into a 15-12 lead. The Bucs would grow to 19-15, before the Mocs used 9-5 run capped by an assisted block from Fernandez and Brady to pull within 24-22. That would be as close as FSC would get, though, as Barry won the set on the next point thanks to a Langley service error. Despite the loss in the set, the Mocs hit .250 as they had 10 kills and just one attack error in 36 total attacks.
Leading 2-1 in the fourth set, the Mocs scored the first three points and led 10-4 following an attack error by the Bucs. The lead would grow to as much at 18-8 before BU scored two straight points to pull within 18-10. The Mocs would use a 5-3 run to push its lead back to 10 points at 23-13, before the Bucs scored three of the next four points to drop FSC's lead to 24-16. That would be as close as BU would get as Hale ended the match with her seventh kill to seal the Mocs victory. In the set, FSC hit .371 as they recorded 17 kills, while BU hit .194.
Barry was paced by Tashalyn Begon, who had 11 kills and 15 digs in the loss, while Jayla Trombley added eight kills and 16 digs.
On the match, FSC outblocked BU, 9-2 as they recorded five solo blocks as in addition to Brady's three, Fernandez had two. The Mocs also recorded 71 digs on the night as junior libero Catherine Brusie (North Branch, Mich.) had a team-high 17 digs.
The Bucs finished the night hitting .138 as they had 40 kills and 61 digs in a the match that lasted almost two hours.
FSC will close out the 2013 regular season in a little less than 24 hours as they travel to Melbourne for a 4 p.m. match at Florida Tech. FSC posted a four-set win over the Panthers in Lakeland on Oct. 11.
