Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern returned home to the comforts of Jenkins Field House Friday evening and used a strong defensive effort here on Senior Night to post an impressive five set non-conference victory over ninth-ranked Palm Beach Atlantic (22-25, 25-18, 25-23, 16-25, 15-13).
Prior to the beginning of the match, the 22nd-ranked Moccasins honored its four member senior class in a pre-match ceremony. The four seniors on this year's team are middle blocker Kayshia Brady (Welaka, Fla.), right side hitter Kendall Marotti (LaBelle, Fla.), setter Lauren Shlemon (Tampa, Fla.) and outside hitter Bridgette Ward (Fort Myers, Fla.).
"It is a neat group of young ladies who have been with us for four years and are the heart and soul of this program," Moccasin head coach Jill Stephens said following her team's fifth consecutive home victory. "It is great they were able to get a win tonight."
With the victory, the Mocs improve to 22-8 overall on the season and snap a two-match losing skid, while Palm Beach Atlantic had its 15 match win streak snapped with the loss and fell to 25-4 on the season. The Sailfish came into the match as the No. 1 ranked team in this week's latest NCAA South Regional rankings, while the Mocs were ranked fourth.
Friday's win helped the Mocs get back on track after losing two consecutive matches last week, including falling in three sets last Saturday at then No. 8 Tampa.
"It's a huge win for our kids," the Moccasin coach said. "We didn't have a very good showing at Tampa last time out so we just worked hard all week to get after it and get back to basics and play good volleyball. It wasn't a very pretty game tonight but we played some good defense and followed our game plan. They got in the gym and it showed.
"That's what was really impressive tonight."
On a night when neither offense was very efficient as the Mocs finished the match hitting .111, while PBA hit just .101, including being held under a .100 attack percentage in the fourth and fifth sets, it was defense that ruled the night as both teams combined for 224 digs and 14 blocks in the match that lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours.
The Moccasins recorded a season high 119 digs and also tied a season high with 12 blocks, while the Sailfish had 105 digs 14 blocks.
FSC's 119 digs are the second most ever recorded in a match in school history as the record for digs in a match is 133 set against Tampa on Nov. 14, 1989. It is the most digs in a match by the Moccasins since 110 digs against Rollins in 2013.
Three Mocs finished with 20 or more digs in the win as sophomore Anna Tovo (Aiken, S.C.) collected a career high 27 digs, while Marotti added a career high 26 and is now within two digs of becoming the 19th Moccasin to record 1,000 career digs and junior outside hitter Brindl Langley (Camas, Wash.) finished with 22 digs. The Mocs had 20 or more digs in three of the five sets, including 32 digs in the opening set.
"Our defense was tremendous tonight against a very good PBA team," said Stephens, who is now 341-164 in her 15th season at the helm of her alma mater.
In addition to three players recording 20 or more digs, two other Mocs recorded 10 or more digs in the win as freshman setter Bethany Besancenez (St. Louis, Mo.) had 17 digs and 22 assists for her 12th double-double of the season and Shlemon added 16 digs and added 27 assists for her sixth double-double of the year.
In addition to the digs, sophomore middle blocker Allie Geary (DeLand, Fla.) tied her career high with eight blocks, including three solo blocks, while Marotti added a season high six blocks in the win.
While its offense struggled on Friday, four Mocs did finish with double digit kills led by 13 from Tovo, while Langley and Brady added 11 and hit a team best .333 and freshman outside hitter Nicole Mattson (Oviedo, Fla.) had 10 kills on the night. The Mocs finished with just 56 kills for five sets.
With her 13 kills and 27 digs, Tovo recorded her team leading 15th double-double on Friday, while Langley posted her sixth double-double of the year.
On the other side of the net, PBA finished with 105 digs as Rachael Holehouse led the way with a match high 31, while Ally Rohn added 26 and Sarah Ragland had a match high nine blocks in the loss.
Stephens said her team has been inconsistent at times this season, but she hopes Friday's victory will give her team a boast heading into the postseason.
"We needed to get on a roll," added Stephens. "We've had a great season but we've been so inconsistent. To get a great win at home is definitely a confidence booster going into regionals. We've got one more tomorrow, though, to take care of."
That inconsistent play reflects in the record as FSC is now 12-1 at home this season, but went just 10-7 away from home during the regular season, including a 2-6 mark on the road in SSC play.
Rohn added 18 kills to pace PBA's offense that finished with 54 kills. The Mocs held PBA's big hitter Faith Rohn to just 14 kills and a .075 attack percentage as she had nine errors on 67 attack attempts.
FSC opened Friday's match with an ace from Shlemon, but PBA would respond with 9-5 run in the opening set to a 9-6 lead. After the Mocs scored three straight points to tie the set, PBA used a 10-7 run to push out to 19-15 lead. The Mocs would answer with a 7-3 run to tie the set 22, but would get no closer than that as PBA scored the set's final three points to earn a 25-22 win.
The second set belonged to the Mocs as they hit .361 and held PBA to a .103 attack percentage en route to earning a 25-18 win and tying the match at a set apiece.
After taking a 2-1 lead in the match following its 25-23 win in the third set, the Mocs struggled offensively in the fourth set as they hit -.093 to help aid in PBA's 25-16 win to force fifth and deciding set.
The fifth set was a back-and-forth affair as neither team was able to get much of an advantage until the Mocs scored two straight points on a kill by Brady and an ace from Tovo to turn a 10-all tie into a 12-10 lead. The lead, though, was short-lived as PBA would score the next three points, including using a kill from Ragland to take a 13-12 lead. FSC wouldn't panic as they tied the set on a Sailfish attack error and then retook the lead 14-12 on a kill by Langley, before capping the 15-13 set thanks to an attack error on match point by Faith Rohn.
Both teams finished with six aces in the match and PBA had just four service errors, while FSC had nine on the night.
Florida Southern will close out the 2015 regular season with a 4 p.m. match on Saturday, Nov. 21 against Barry (14-11 overall, 8-7 SSC), who picked up a four-set win Friday at Florida Tech. The Buccaneers and the Mocs are tied for fourth in the SSC standings heading into Saturday's final day of play.
