Box Score WEST PALM BEACH - Florida Southern used a balanced offense and strong defense here Thursday afternoon en route to posting a four set victory over No. 6 seed North Alabama (25-21, 25-22, 24-26, 25-15) in the first round of the 2015 South Regional Tournament at Rubin Arena on the Palm Beach Atlantic campus.
With the victory, the No. 3 seeded and 21st-ranked Moccasins improved to 24-8 on the season and are now 22-31 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and won its fifth consecutive opening round match since falling in five sets to Rollins in the first round of the 2010 South Regional. North Alabama, who was making its 16th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament, ends its season with a 26-8 record.
"We are just thrilled to get the win today against a great opponent. North Alabama is so athletic and so offensive and we focused all week on finding ways to slow them down a little bit," Moccasin head coach Jill Stephens said in the postmatch press conference. "I feel like our defense was pretty incredible, holding a team that was hitting in the high .200's to .067 is just amazing.
North Alabama came in Thursday's match hitting .269 on the season as a team, but was held to an .069 attack percentage against the Mocs. The Lions, who claimed its record 16th Gulf South Conference Tournament title this season, hit .075 or less in three of the four sets.
"We gave a phenomenal effort of just playing tenacious defense today," the Mocs coach added.
In the match, the Mocs recorded 79 digs and a season high 16 blocks, including a career-high tying nine blocks from sophomore middle blocker Allie Geary (DeLand, Fla.). Senior right side hitter Kendall Marotti had five blocks and senior middle blocker Kayshia Brady (Welaka, Fla.) had four blocks.
"Something switched on for us about two weeks ago. We took a loss and our team just got in the gym and decided they were going to work their tails off every time they were on the floor," said Stephens when asked about her team's defensive play lately. "We are going to work hard to be in the right spot and be disciplined on defense, but when it comes down to it, we have to dig balls and figure out how to win games. They've had a better mentality the past couple of weeks."
While its defense was a catalyst in the victory, the Moccasin offense also had a hand in the victory as they hit .287 for the match, including hitting a combined .354 in the final two sets and had three players post double digits in kills.
Leading the way offensively for the Mocs was Brady as the Second-Team All-Sunshine State Conference performer slammed home 17 kills and had just two attack errors on her 31 attack attempts for a .484 attack percentage. It was the 21st time this season and 71st time in her collegiate career that Brady had hit over .300 in a match.
"If we can pass well, then I am able to get a swing off and today we passed really well," said Brady, who has now recorded 1,049 kills in her Moccasin career. "So for that, I credit the defense, the back row and Lauren (Shelmon) our setter for being able to find me and then I was able to terminate."
In addition to Brady, sophomore outside hitter Anna Tovo (Aiken, S.C.) finished with 12 kills and 14 digs for her team leading 18th double-double of the season, while junior outside hitter Brindl Langley (Camas, Wash.) added 11 kills and 23 digs for her eighth double-double of the year. Tovo and Langley each hit over .200 for the match as Tovo hit .258 and Langley .257.
A fourth Moccasin just missed double figures in kills as freshman outside hitter Nicole Mattson (Oviedo, Fla.) had nine in the win that advances to the Mocs to its fifth consecutive regional semifinal match on Friday at 5 p.m.
With her 23 digs, Langley passed for Moccasins Joleen Cacciatore (2002-05) and Pagie DuBois (1991-94) for eighth on the school's career dig chart. Cacciatore and DuBois both recorded 1,239 digs in their careers, while Langley has now had 1,260 digs.
In the opening set, the Mocs jumped out to a 9-5 lead and led 10-6 when UNA used an 11-6 run to take a 16-15 lead. FSC, though, would answer by scoring six consecutive points to take a 21-16 lead. UNA would answer the Mocs run by scoring four of the next five points to drop the Mocs lead to 22-20. That would be as close as the Lions would get as the Mocs scored three of the final four points, including capping the 25-21 set win with a kill from Tovo. Tovo had six kills in the set.
The Mocs would jump out to a 5-1 lead in the second set and eventually led 14-7 when the Lions used an 8-3 run to pull within 17-15. The Mocs would answer with three straight points capped by a solo block from Geary to push its lead to 20-15. The Lions, though, responded with a 6-0 run to take a 21-20 lead. The run was keyed by three aces from UNA's Natasha Fomina. FSC would close out the set by scoring five of the final six points and capping the 25-22 win with a kill from Langley.
Trailing 2-0 in the match, UNA jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the third set. After the Mocs scored four of the next five points to pull within 11-9, the Lions would push its lead to 18-14 thanks to a 7-5 run. The Mocs would answer with a 4-0 run to tie the set at 18. After UNA scored three straight points to take a 21-18 lead, the Mocs would respond by scoring six of the next eight points to take a 24-23 lead following back-to-back kills from Brady and Langley. UNA, though, would close the set by scoring the final three points to post a 26-24 win. In the set, the Mocs hit .308 and UNA hit .175.
After the first three sets featured 22 ties and eight ties, the fourth set belonged to the Mocs as after the teams took turns trading the sets first four points, FSC used a 5-1 run to take a 7-3 lead. UNA would score the next three points to pull within 7-6, before the Mocs used a 7-0 run to push out to a 13-6 advantage. The Lions woud score three straight points to drop FSC's lead to 13-9, before the Mocs would close out the set on a 12-6 run to earn the 25-15 win and seal its victory. In the fourth set, the Mocs hit .400 and held UNA to a .000 hitting percentage.
UNA was paced offensively by 14 kills from Fomina, while Lexie Bradley had 11 kills in the loss. Jessica Austin and Peyton Lang each had seven kills for the Lions. Andrea De Leon led the Lions defense with 19 digs and had 35 assists, while Ashtyn Kapovich added 18 digs.
The Mocs now advance on to face No. 2 seed and No. 3 ranked Tampa in Friday's first of two regional semifinal matches at 5 p.m. at Rubin Arena. The Spartans, who are the reigning Division II National Champions, advanced to the semifinals with a three set win Thursday over No. 7 seed Eckerd (25-22, 25-19, 25-14).
