Box Score FORT LAUDERDALE - Playing less than 24 hours after extending its win streak to six consecutive matches with a hard-fought four set victory at Lynn, Florida Southern showed little effects of being tired as they played one of its most efficient offensive matches of the year in posting a three-set sweep over Nova Southeastern (25-18, 25-14, 25-12) in Sunshine State Conference action at NSU Arena.
The victory extended the Moccasins win streak to seven consecutive matches and improved FSC to 10-3 overall on the year and 3-0 in the SSC, while NSU fell to 3-7 overall and 0-2 in the league standings.
In Saturday's victory, the Mocs, who played 14 of the 15 active players on its roster, hit an efficient .330 and had had six players hit .300 for the match, including sophomore Bridgette Ward (Fort Myers, Fla.) hitting 1.000 as she had two kills and no errors on two attack attempts. Along with hitting .330, the Mocs also finished with just eight attack errors and also recorded 46 digs and a match-high seven total team blocks in the posting its fifth 3-set victory of the year.
Senior middle blocker Dominique Hale (Kingman, Ariz.) led the way offensively for the Mocs as she had eight kills and hit .467, while junior outside hitter Kate Stromberg (Lexington, Ky.), junior right side hitter Gabby Fernandez (Tampa, Fla.) and freshman outside hitter Brindl Langley (Camas, Wash.) each had seven kills in the win. Stromberg hit a season-best .400, while Fernandez hit a season-best .389.
In addition, sophomore setter Kendall Marotti (LaBelle, Fla.) added three kills, 26 assists and seven digs and sophomore middle blocker Kayshia Brady (Welaka, Fla.) had four kills, four blocks and hit .333 for the match.
The most competitive set of the match was the first one as FSC jumped out to a 5-2 lead when the Sharks used a 5-4 run to pull within 9-7 following a kill by Caitlin Donohue. That would be as close as the Sharks would get as FSC used a 13-5 run to push its lead to 22-12. NSU would score the next three points to drop the Mocs lead to 22-15, but FSC would close the set by scoring three of the final six points to seal its 25-18 win. In the first set, FSC hit .222 and had 13 kills and five attack errors.
In the second set, the Mocs finished with a .367 hitting percentage as they recorded 12 kills and just one error and held NSU to a .000 hitting percentage. The Mocs scored the first four point of the set and wouldn't look back as they led by as much as 12 points following an attack error by the Sharks, who had 10 in the set. The Mocs would win the set 25-14, including capping the set with back-to-back kills from Hale and Langley.
The third and final set was much like the second one as FSC hit .429 as they had 14 kills and just two attack errors, while holding NSU to a -.030 hitting percentage as they had eight kills and nine attack errors. In the set, FSC jumped out to a 6-0 lead and led by as much 14 points at 21-7 following a kill by Marotti. The Sharks would score four of the next five points to pull within 22-11, before the Mocs closed the set by scoring three of the final four points to seal the 25-12 win. All three of Marotti's kills in the match were recorded in the third set, while Hale had four of her eight kills in the set.
NSU was paced by seven kills and nine digs from Dana Holger, while Syndey Cook added five kills and 11 digs in the loss.
The Mocs defense was paced by eight digs apiece from Stromberg and junior libero Catherine Brusie (North Branch, Mich.), while Marotti and Langley each had seven digs. In addition to her eight digs, Brusie also had a match-high and season-high tying three service aces.
FSC will remain on the road as they travel to St. Petersburg to face Eckerd in a 7 p.m. SSC match on Wednesday, Oct. 2, before returning home to host Embry-Riddle in a 7 p.m. non-conference match on Friday, Oct. 4.
